Why angry people think they are more intelligent?

People’s estimations of their intelligence are likely to be affected by nonability factors. Existing literature suggests that traits representing negative emotionality are usually associated with a tendency to assess... [ view full abstract ]

People’s estimations of their intelligence are likely to be affected by nonability factors. Existing literature suggests that traits representing negative emotionality are usually associated with a tendency to assess intelligence lower than the actually possessed ability. However, anger differs in many ways from such negative emotions as anxiety, fear or depression. Contrary to these emotions, anger was found to correlate with a general optimistic bias, optimistic risk perception, positive affect, and an increased sense of individual control and certainty. Thus, the valence approach to emotions may not be sufficient to explain the belief system characteristic for high trait anger individuals. In two studies (n=314 and n=230) I show that although high trait anger individuals obtain low score in cognitive ability tests, they tend to overestimate their subjectivelly assessed intelligence (SAI). Interestingly, the positive association between trait anger and SAI (app .10 in both studies) increased after controlling for neuroticism (betas .18 and .24 in studies 1 and 2, respectively), which suggests a supression effect when the unspecific negative emotionality variance (neuroticisism) is removed. These results are in line with recent empirical data showing that anger is a negatively valenced, but approach oriented emotion.