Writing angry notes and shredding them makes you feel better, study finds
In the annual Japanese festival of Hakidashisara, visitors to the Hiyoshi shrine in Kiyosu smash small discs representing things that make them angry 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 make sure that the students were angered 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 it, binning it or saving it.
They found that the 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 decrease in overall anger.
The researchers believe that the findings could help business people who find themselves in stressful situations.
‘Anger management technique’
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 piece of paper and then binning it, could be a quick way to feel consoled.
“This technique could be applied in the moment by writing down the source of anger as if taking a memo and then throwing it away when one feels angry in a business situation,” added Mr Kawai.
The team said the discovery may shed light on the origins of the Japanese cultural tradition Hakidashisara, in which “hakidashi” refers to the purging or spitting out of something, and “sara” refers to a dish or plate.
Researchers say their findings may explain the feeling of relief that participants report after leaving the festival.
The research was published in the journal Scientific Reporters.
