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Anger is eliminated with the disposal of a paper written because of provocation
Anger suppression is important in our daily life, as its failure can sometimes lead to the breaking down of relationships in families. Thus, effective strategies to suppress or neutralise anger have been examined. This study shows that physical disposal of a piece of paper containing one’s written thoughts on the cause of a provocative event neutralises anger, while holding the paper did not. In this study, participants wrote brief opinions about social problems and received a handwritten, insulting comment consisting of low evaluations about their composition from a confederate. Then, the participants wrote the cause and their thoughts about the provocative event. Half of the participants (disposal group) disposed of the paper in the trash can (Experiment 1) or in the shredder (Experiment 2), while the other half (retention group) kept it in a file on the desk. All the participants showed an increased subjective rating of anger after receiving the insulting feedback. However, the subjective anger for the disposal group decreased as low as the baseline period, while that of the retention group was still higher than that in the baseline period in both experiments. We propose this method as a powerful and simple way to eliminate anger.
After writing, the participants were asked to review the sentences carefully for 30 s. For the retention group, the paper was turned over, put in a clear plastic folder, and placed on the right side of the desk. Kubo et al. 40 reported that the increase in the state of anger relevant to approach motivation (aggression) by provocation (measured using the STAXI and asymmetry of prefrontal brain activity) was reduced by an apology comment. Heleniak, C., Jenness, J. L., Vander Stoep, A., McCauley, E. & McLaughlin, K. A. Childhood maltreatment exposure and disruptions in emotion regulation: A transdiagnostic pathway to adolescent internalizing and externalizing psychopathology.
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