Does venting anger bring relief?

Does venting anger bring relief?

The roadmap our culture gives us is simple: anger is steam building up inside, so let it out and it will pass. Shout, punch a pillow, go for a run.

The evidence says the opposite. In an experiment involving participants who had been provoked to anger, those who punched a punching bag while thinking about the person who had angered them were the angriest and most aggressive group; those who did nothing were the least aggressive (Bushman, 2002). A 2024 meta-analysis combining 154 studies and more than 10,000 participants found that methods that calm the body, such as slow breathing, relaxation, and mindfulness, moderately reduced anger and aggression; activities that increase physiological arousal, such as punching a punching bag, running, and cycling, were generally ineffective (Kjærvik and Bushman, 2024).

So is the answer to bottle it up? No. Suppressing emotions is also associated with weaker social support and poorer relationship quality (Chervonsky and Hunt, 2017).

There is a third way: first calm the body's alarm response, then talk. Calming down does not mean giving up your legitimate position; it means being able to express it constructively.

A short film I created based on the first chapter of my new book, Az Bilinen Doğrular. The voice-over is mine, and AI was used to create the visuals. Full references are in the first comment.