This doesn’t surprise me. Growing up in an abusive situation taught me to be on the lookout for danger, and nothing was more dangerous than people on the verge of being angry. It’s only natural that I’ve spent the rest of my life highly attuned to anger and trying to find ways to diffuse it before they hurt me or someone else.
Now we can show that it’s not just a learned behavior, but it’s hard-coded into our brains.
People who experienced abuse during childhood may automatically lock their attention onto signs of anger. A new brain wave study reveals that survival adaptations tied to early trauma manifest as involuntary reflexes rather than conscious emotional evaluations.
Trauma survivors process angry expressions differently on a subconscious level