The effects of written catharsis on anger relief

Abstract

Previous studies have found that "general catharsis", such as hitting sandbags, does not reduce but increases an individual's anger feeling and aggressive behavior. Although the "goal catharsis" that is directed at attacking targets can temporarily relieve anger, there is a risk of increasing the tendency of aggressive personality if it is used for a long time. These findings raise serious doubts and challenges to the traditional view that "anger must be released" held by the classic catharsis theory that many people still trust. The present study compared the effects of "general catharsis" and "goal catharsis" on anger-related responses among Chinese people, and the Chinese written form of catharsis was used in this study. The results showed that after participants were provoked, the aggressive behavior of participants who wrote down their dissatisfaction (general catharsis condition) was significantly higher than that of participants who wrote to attack someone who irritated them (goal catharsis condition) as well as that of participants who completed a simple recall task (control condition), and there was no significant difference in the aggressive behavior level between the latter two cases. These results suggest that the catharsis effect is no better than a simple recall task similar to attention distraction, that is, aggressive catharsis is not an effective way for anger relief. K E Y W O R D S aggressive behavior, anger, catharsis, emotion regulation, Taylor aggression paradigm Jun Zhan and Yu Shuhan contributed equally to this work.

The effect of aggressive fantasizing on aggressive inclinations: Moderating effects of dispositional anger expression

“…Second, we focused on the short-term effects of aggressive fantasizing. Notably, research suggests that these short-term tendencies may translate into long-term outcomes, such as depression or a heightened risk of heart disease (Zhan et al, 2021). Investigating such long-term consequences represents a valuable avenue for future research.…”

“…In the context of psychotherapy, however, some techniques are based on the catharsis hypothesis, proposing that individuals should engage with their anger to promote mental health (Feshbach, 1984; Gentile, 2013). For example, in expressive‐experiential psychotherapy (e.g., expressive writing; Pennebaker, 1997; Zhan et al, 2021), patients are guided to allow themselves to feel and express their emotions (e.g., anger). One notable application of catharsis in psychotherapy, especially with victims of misconduct, involves working with aggressive fantasizing (Haen & Weber, 2009; Seebauer et al, 2014).…”

Ascribing consciousness to artificial intelligence: human-AI interaction and its carry-over effects on human-human interaction

“…Even so, the catharsis or immediate relief alone does not promise a reduction of that behavior or feeling ( Alexander and French, 1946 ; Dollard and Miller, 1950 ; Worchel, 1957 ) and can in many ways exacerbate negative feelings ( Anderson and Bushman, 2002 ; Bushman, 2002 ). Other researchers found that writing down feelings of anger was less effective than writing to the person who made the participant angry, yet neither mode of catharsis alleviated anger responses ( Zhan et al, 2021 ). These findings suggest that whether you were to write to a chatbot and tell it about your anger, or bully it, the behavior would only result in increased aggression toward other people.…”