Research Hit: A Simple Way to Immediately Wipe Out Your Anger
Japanese researchers find that a simple trick can, surprisingly, almost eliminate negative feelings and anger.
That sounds like one of those clickbait headlines “One simple trick…”
Yes, it does, but this is actually based on some recent research. And it is also an old trick and similar forms of this have been used for different purposes over the decades.
And it is based around anger?
Yes, anger - specifically after being insulted.
And how was this researched - did someone have the job of hurling insults at poor research participants!
Well kind of - sometimes these type of things don’t get past university ethics committees. Logically because it may cause some form of lasting damage to an individual. In this research by Yuta Kanaya and Nobuyuki Kawai of Nagoya University in Japan, students were asked to write an opinion on social problems such as whether smoking in public should be outlawed.
The students were told these would be reviewed by a doctoral student (there was no such doctoral student). However, all responses from these supposed doctoral students were identical and negative and pretty insulting.
This standard response rated all opinions as low on intelligence, interest, friendliness, logic, and rationality. Then it finished off with the following insulting comment: "I cannot believe an educated person would think like this. I hope this person learns something while at the university."
Ouch - that’s pretty harsh - I am sure that elicited a reaction!
Indeed, I can imagine how that would make me feel. I would be pretty angry and feel very unjustly treated.
Me too!
Precisely. So this was how they elicited negative feeling and anger and then they wanted to investigate whether they could diminish this. And to their surprise one technique basically wiped out the negative feelings returning participants close to baseline.
Now you’ve got me intrigued - what on earth could they do to wipe out the negative feelings - hypnotisation maybe?!
Well, they didn’t expect this to be as effective as it was. Participants rated their emotions and then wrote their feelings on a piece of paper - what they were feeling and what elicited this response. Then different participants did different things: one group kept the piece of paper. Another threw it away. The third group shredded it.
Which do you think was most effective in reducing anger?
Well I assume that externalising anger i.e. writing it down helped: and then maybe shredding it - I can imagine the good feeling of a shredder!
Yes, writing it down decreased anger slightly i.e. those who wrote down their feelings and kept the paper. However, those who threw it away and those who shredded it almost returned to baseline - effectively wiping out the anger.
Wow - so writing down your angry feelings and throwing away the paper, or shredding it wipes out the anger! Amazing!
Yes, as I said the researchers were themselves very surprised at how effective it was. I also note that various forms of this have been practised (I learnt of similar techniques decades ago) by some motivational coaches (alas pop psychology can be right!).
The researchers actually based this on a Japanese cultural tradition from Nagoya called hakidashisara whereby people smash small dishes representing things that make them angry and with their feelings written on them, in a yearly festival.
So simple: if you are angry, write down your emotions, and throw away the paper. Done!
Yes, but only if it is having a negative impact - remember under some conditions anger can also be motivating!
Reference
Yuta Kanaya, Nobuyuki Kawai.
Anger is eliminated with the disposal of a paper written because of provocation.
Scientific Reports, 2024; 14 (1)
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-57916-z