Destroying anger on paper calms you, says Japan study

IN THE annual Japanese festival of Hakidashisara, visitors to the Hiyoshi shrine in Kiyosu smash small discs representing things that make them angry in an effort to let go of their frustrations.

Now Japanese scientists have proven that the practice can work in everyday life, after showing that writing down irritations on paper – then destroying it – really does quell furious feelings.

“We expected that our method would suppress anger to some extent,” said Nobuyuki Kawai, the lead researcher from Nagoya University.

“However, we were amazed that anger was eliminated almost entirely.”

In new experiments, the Nagoya team set out to trigger angry feelings in a group of university students, who were invited to write opinions on social issues, such as whether smoking in public should be outlawed.

The volunteers were told their opinions would be evaluated, but instead, researchers scored everyone low on intelligence, logic and rationality. To really make sure the students were really miffed by the marking, each person’s work also included the same insulting comment, which read: “I cannot believe an educated person would think like this. I hope this person learns something while at the university.”

After handing back the negative comments, the researchers measured anger levels and asked participants to write down their thoughts on the feedback, and then either destroy the document by shredding or binning it, or saving it.

They found anger levels of the individuals who binned or shredded their paper had returned to their initial state of calm, while those who kept the feedback only had a small drop in anger.

The researchers believe that the findings could help business people.

Many anger management techniques such as taking a cold shower, or going for a run are impractical for office workers, but simply writing a grievance down on a paper then binning it, could be a way to feel consoled.

The research was published in the journal Scientific Reporters.