Anger and anxiety are the No. 1 attribute of messages that get shared, found Jonah Berger and Katherine L. Milkman, two professors at the University of Pennsylvania.

They reviewed some 7,000 articles that appeared in The New York Times to determine what distinguished pieces that made the most-mailed list.

They found that anger is 34% more likely to go viral. That’s equivalent to spending an additional 2.9 hours as the lead story on NYTimes.com. And that’s nearly four times the average number of hours articles spend in that position.

That makes anger the No. 1 technique for getting your target audience to read your blog posts and pass them on.

Tap the anger advantage.

So how can you use that?

Use a marketing technique called “Make ’em sick, make ’em well.” That is, lead with the problem that’s making your target audience angry, follow up with your solution to their problem.

As ad man David Ogilvy counseled, “When you advertise fire extinguishers, open with the flames.”

Communicators are often too eager to rush in with the product, service or idea. After all, that’s what we’re selling. But first, show your audience members how bad life can get without your product, service or idea.

Here’s how it works, from a financial services campaign:

Make ’em sick

Make ’em well

Lead with the problem.

Remember: Fire first, fire extinguisher second.

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