Chapter 18 A hero does not suffer from immediate losses

Pierce Brosnan walked up and down the terrace of the villa.Through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the villa on Martha's Vineyard, just below Cape Cod, we could see his people, but not hear his voice.He was on the phone with one hand raised next to his ear. Suddenly, he threw the phone to the ground and walked away.We didn't hear a word of the phone call, but we knew he was very angry.In fact, it was not Brosnan who was angry, but his role as Adam Lang in the movie "Shadow Writer".You might be asking yourself, what on earth did that mobile phone do to get a death sentence and smash it to pieces?You may not have seen the movie, but the situation above is certainly familiar.How many telephones, flower pots, glass windows, oil paintings, photos, and computers should be sacrificed in similar scenes in movies.Not only in movies, but maybe in your living room as well.Tables are banged, doors are slammed, and books (even your cat) are flying everywhere.Does it make sense?What was wrong with those tables, doors, and cats?They're not wrong, but they're not meaningless. It's called anger transfer, and it's worth a lot more in its own right than we think.

There are three possible situations in which a person suddenly becomes enraged.Either suppress the anger - which is usually impossible in reality; or punch the perpetrator in the face, which is not socially acceptable and cause more trouble; or transfer the anger to a third party, that is, Innocent stand-in.The last method is the best choice when enraged.Anger finds the punching bag it needs, and you don't have to go to court or worry about reprisals afterwards.Anger is thus diverted, removed.In behavioral biology, we call this phenomenon "transfer" or "anger transfer."

This behavior system seems to be nothing special, and it doesn’t need to be given too much attention, but for a complex social group—such as people, this regular mechanism is still very good.As with all animals, cohabitation has both advantages and disadvantages, one of which is that it can provoke anger.Living in close proximity, constant contact with each other, and long-term cooperation can all lead to conflict, which can easily escalate into anger.This is very dangerous and will bring crisis to teamwork.Knowing how to deal with situations like this is part of having a good collaboration.Over the millions of years of human evolution, cooperation emerged, along with mechanisms to mitigate anger.Smiling is one of them, but instead of smiling we’re talking about another ancient behavioral system that reduces conflict—anger transfer.This can be seen in many animals, including birds.If an animal is caught in an angry conflict, it will do everything in its power to avoid taking out its anger on the other.Instead, vent your anger on the ground, a branch, or, if necessary, another animal smaller than yourself.This avoids a bloody battle, and both sides are happy.This mechanism has existed for millions of years, gradually implanted in the complex social system of human ancestors.Despite its age, it is still efficient at making social groups work, a bit like adding oil to a machine to reduce friction.This metaphor is not complete, because anger transfer is much better than motor oil, not only preventing friction in a group, but also ensuring the survival of friendships that have been established between group members.A skirmish between two friends or partners doesn't have to escalate to the point of derailment.Tables, doors, or cats can all play the role of a punching bag, so that the original order is preserved.If a good relationship can be maintained between the two, then the close relationship of the whole group will be guaranteed.

Anger transfer is just one of many regular systems. There is another mechanism called dominance, which has existed for a long time and is also reflected in many animals.To prevent permanent conflict, group members must be very aware of their position.Status is like the steps of a staircase, some people are above you and some are below you.At the top is the strong man who cannot be ruled by others, the leader of the group.Such a system also avoids permanent conflicts.Is anyone arguing over food?Then the person with higher status has priority.Although not everyone likes such a rule, it has to be admitted that it is very effective and ensures the order of the group.This system has also been preserved during human evolution.Need I stress that again?Dominance not only ensures group solidarity but also fosters cooperation.In our society today, the group structure is definitely much more complicated than it was hundreds of thousands of years ago, but we still often show status differences and pursue the so-called dominant position.This is indeed a very complex system, and it is impossible to explain it in a few sentences here.What is certain, however, is that the system is ancient and still contributes to the existence of the group to this day.

I don't know what Pierce Brosnan heard on the phone, but what is certain is that the content of the call made him very angry.The person who told him the bad news was out of his reach, so that person's nose was safe for the time being.We don't expect every bad news to invite a boxing match, though.As a result, the phone call was miserable. Although it was a bit more expensive, the anger was diverted.This is not only a good thing in terms of sociality, Nokia and Samsung have also become richer, and they have to thank human evolution.