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Angry faces can be good for the brain

21 March 2007

Testosterone-fuelled people seem to enjoy provoking anger in others. At least, that’s the conclusion of a study looking at people’s responses to angry faces and their levels of testosterone.

Michelle Wirth and Oliver Schultheiss at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor measured the testosterone levels of 70 young adults and then gave them a learning task involving tapping out a pattern of keystrokes on a computer. After each repetition of the task they were shown a face with either an angry or a neutral expression, which flashed onto the screen for a few milliseconds – far too briefly to…

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