Anger Is Like Chocolate — A Socio-Ecological Model of Emotional Indulgence —

Anger has long been regarded as an adaptive emotion in human evolution, functioning as a mechanism for negotiation, deterrence, and the correction of unfair treatment. However, in contemporary societies characterized by dense institutional arrangements and long-term social interaction, anger frequently manifests not as an adaptive response but as a source of interpersonal disruption, psychological insecurity, and harassment. Despite its apparent maladaptiveness, anger persists and, in some environments, proliferates. This study proposes a novel theoretical framework, the Anger-as-Indulgence Model (AIM), which conceptualizes anger not as a mere emotional reaction or personality trait, but as an emotional resource that is selected, consumed, and reproduced within socio-ecological systems. Drawing on evolutionary psychology, behavioral economics, neuroscience, meme theory, and the author’s prior work on emotional contagion, formal sanction loops, and reverse selection, AIM explains how anger becomes repeatedly chosen through immediate psychological rewards, reward expectations, institutional legitimation, and environmental selection pressure. Central to this model is the redefinition of anger as an indulgent emotion analogous to a consumer good: not physiologically necessary, yet repeatedly consumed due to its reliable short-term rewards, despite long-term social costs. Through anonymized case studies, this paper demonstrates that the indulgent transformation of anger is not dependent on individual personality traits, but on isomorphic socio-ecological configurations across different times, locations, and occupational contexts. The findings suggest that conventional interventions focusing on emotional regulation or moral instruction are insufficient as long as anger remains embedded in reward-generating institutional arrangements. Instead, effective intervention requires reconfiguring environments so that anger no longer produces psychological or organizational rewards. By shifting the analytical focus from managing anger to repositioning it within socio-ecological systems, this study offers a unified explanation for anger dependence, contagion, institutionalization, silence, and avoidance, and provides a structural foundation for addressing anger-related dysfunctions in modern organizations and societies.