system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: When really angry, why do some people feel better if they do something destructive, like screaming or hitting something, sometimes even to the point of hurting themselves?
gpt
It's called redirected aggression. Humans (and other mammals) feel better when scared or angry, if they attack something else. If they can't directly attack the source of their anger or fear, then they attack something else, and that makes them feel better. This has also been demonstrated in the lab among rats. If you do something repetitively stressful to rats, like shock them, and they can't do anything to prevent or control it, they'll get depressed and listless. They'll show signs of stress on their body, too. But if you put two rats in the cage, then one rat will attack the other rat. The attacker will not show signs of stress, while the attacked rat will show more signs of stress, as well as injury. Humans know they shouldn't be attacking people. Some do it anyway, but an alternative is the attack things rather than people.