Booking the rage room this weekend? Venting might not help

We are often told not to bottle up our emotions, especially anger. Vent it out, they say. The age-old wisdom that venting out anger is the golden ticket to

anger management

has led to the rise of rage rooms across the globe. Smashing the old televisions and hurling the bottles in the

rage room

is said to be a cure for all those bottled-up emotions. The latest research, however, suggests otherwise. According to a recent meta-analytic review done by the researchers at

Ohio State University

, they found little evidence that venting reduces anger. In fact, in some cases, it can only worsen the situation.
The researchers at Ohio State University analyzed 154 studies involving more than 10,189 participants of different genders, races, ages, and cultures, and found that lowering

physiological arousal

or turning down the heat is the best way to reduce anger. Increasing physiological arousal overall had no effect on anger, and some activities such as jogging only made it worse.

“I think it’s really important to bust the myth that if you’re angry you should blow off steam – get it off your chest.

Venting anger

might sound like a good idea, but there’s not a shred of scientific evidence to support catharsis theory,” Brad Bushman, senior author and professor of communication at The Ohio State University said in a press release.

Bushman also suggested that in order to reduce anger, it is better to engage in activities that decrease arousal levels. He debunked the popular wisdom that venting helps and stated that going for a run is not an effective strategy because it increases arousal levels and ends up being counterproductive.

The study was led by first author Sophie Kjærvik, who completed the review for her Ohio State dissertation. Kjærvik, who is now a postdoctoral fellow at Virginia Commonwealth University, stated that the inspiration for the study was the boom of rage rooms. She expressed that she wanted to debunk the whole theory of expressing anger as a way of coping with it. She further added that she and her team wanted to show that reducing arousal, and the physiological aspect of it was pivotal in anger management.

According to the study guided by the Schachter-Singer two-factor theory all emotions, including anger, consist of physiological arousal and mental meanings. In order to get rid of anger, one has to work on either of those.

Kjærvik’s analysis focused on examining both arousal-increasing activities (such as hitting a bag, jogging, cycling, and swimming) and arousal-decreasing activities (such as deep breathing, mindfulness, meditation, and yoga), in order to resolve anger. The results confirmed that arousal-decreasing activities such as deep breathing, relaxation, mindfulness, meditation, slow flow yoga, progressive muscle relaxation, diaphragmic breathing, and taking a timeout were effective in dealing with anger. Kjærvik also stated that progressive muscle relaxation and just relaxation, in general, maybe as effective as practicing mindfulness and meditation.

“And yoga, which can be more arousing than meditation and mindfulness, is still a way of calming and focusing on your breath that has a similar effect in reducing anger,” she pointed out.
(Pic courtesy: Pexels)