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Are you tired of throwing tantrums every other day? Experts have found the solution. And for that, you need to arm yourself with paper and a pen!
A Japanese research group found that writing down your anger on a piece of paper, then shredding it or throwing it away, would reduce negative emotions. The results of their work are available in the journal Scientific Reports.
An effective way to calm anger?
For the study, researchers at Nagoya University asked 57 university applicants to write short opinions on important social issues, such as banning smoking in public. They then told them that an individual – a doctoral student from Nagoya University – would evaluate their writing.
On all these renderings, a very negative comment was written. It was this: “JI can’t believe an educated person would think like that. I hope this person learns something at University“.
After providing these critical comments, the researchers invited participants to write down their thoughts on these comments, focusing on their emotions.
Several candidates also had to throw the paper they had written into a trash can or keep it on their desk/in a box. Others were asked to destroy the document in a shredder.
Important detail: Their feelings of anger were assessed using five adjectives: angry, bothered, annoyed, hostile and irritated. The “PANAS” Positive Affectivity and Negative Affectivity Scale was also used by the researchers.
Result ? All participants revealed that they were affected by the insulting comments. On the other hand, those who threw their paper in the trash and/or shredded it claimed that their angry state “returned” to normal, immediately after separating from the paper.
These are striking results, according to the researchers, who believe that this method can almost completely eliminate feelings of anger.
“We expected our method to suppress anger to some extent“said lead researcher Nobuyuki Kawai.”However, we were surprised to find that anger was almost completely eliminated.”
The research team now hopes to apply this method in business.
“This technique could be applied on the big day by writing down the source of the anger (…) and throwing away the memo as soon as one feels annoyed in a professional situation“, he says.
Good in his body, good in his head!
A method that also works for children
Although researchers have recently highlighted the effects of this method, it is actually not new.
It is even used by parents to soothe their children. The action of tearing a paper (and the noise that accompanies it) often helps to reduce the intensity of anger.
The fact that the child also physically gets rid of his paper makes it possible to renew the dialogue, in a more peaceful climate.
Slide: Anger: 10 things to do to calm down (before you break down…)