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A new kind of anger is striking stressed-out Americans: sidewalk rage. Signs include muttering around others or bumping into them, hogging a walking lane, or glaring with a hostile “mean face,” according to Colorado State University research cited by the Wall Street Journal. “We’re trying to understand what makes people angry, what that experience is like,” says Jerry Deffenbacher, a CSU prof who studies anger. The goal of the research is to help people develop coping skills, whether on a downtown street, at an airport, in a grocery store, or some other crowded place.
Could you be a rager? Perhaps, if you tend to have a strong opinion about how people should act in certain situations, such as on an escalator—for example, if you believe the left side should be left open for those who want to walk up. Problem is, everyone walks at a different pace, and that’s unlikely to change.