Sounds like saying, "Don't cry when you're sad it Doesn't Work"
How about let people do what they want? People vent because they want to know they aren't crazy or at fault. Not because they're trying to be calm or forget grievances.
This does sound like a selection bias and priming.
You have a group of people who are criticised. Some of those people are told to do something physically violent. All were then told to push a button to blast a noise.
Blasting a noise is a mild aggression. Hitting a punching bag is much more aggressive. It's no surprise that the group primed for violence reported more anger and was more primed to the milder form of aggression.
Also how did the people hit the bag? Did any resist and needed encouragement. Did they punch it full force or just tap it so they could get their reward and leave?
There is no way this study can draw conclusions on people who are victims of sustained physical and emotional trauma. It only proves that people who had college essays criticised are more likely to press the beep button and feel angry if they're forced to punch a punching bag.
edit - I am biased. I endured a tough childhood with bipolar parents, physical and emotional abuse was involved. I know there is a venting trap where you can get comfortable and wallow, but that's like finding a local minima, without any form of catharsis you never heal, with undirected catharsis you get stuck, but catharsis coupled with guidance and reinforcement really does help.
It may seem like a "no duh" moment, but sometimes you need to observe it in a structured format to demonstrate it.
"priming" has had something of a fall from grace.
> The studies of behavioral priming that I had cited in the chapter were largely discredited in the famous replication crisis of psychology... behavioral priming research is effectively dead.
https://www.edge.org/adversarial-collaboration-daniel-kahnem...
Though if priming is dead, it seems interesting the people who punched the bag seemed angrier or more vindictive afterwards according to the OP study.
“YouTube!”
* a reference to The Aristocrats joke, and how YouTube removed publicly facing downvotes on videos. Great for concealing negative sentiment!
Our prefrontal cortex [which plays critical role in cognition, emotional regulation, and control of impulsive behavior] doesn't come fully online until you are about 24 (!). Given that, I take all studies done on university campuses with students younger than 24 with a good spoonful of salt.
Catharsis has a long history of study and proponents of catharsis have yet to get a "win".
As for releasing intense emotional strain - you're more likely to lash out.
Have you tried not punching the wall and have a time out instead? Because people who "punch the wall" are, according to multiple studies, more likely to lash out and be abusive.
Presumably the wall-punching and tendency toward other physical/emotional abuses are tied to one or more underlying common causes.
That is, people shouldn't be told to punch a wall (for cartharsis) or even necessarily not to do so (because it'll make you abusive), but those for whom that is a temptation or tendency should seek assistance to uncover and address the root causes.
Like, my overall emotional regulation is way better on the weeks when I've been more active, with cycling, lane swimming, taking walks, etc. And I'm certainly not doing those things "in anger", but it's still absolutely a kind of release.
Of course, the article is mostly talking about venting as a scheduled, planned thing too, so I don't know.
But now that I'm there, it's clear that this really is a helpful long-term pattern to follow for mental well-being, quite apart from being now in my mid-30s and needing to actually be intentional about staying in shape.
Please explain? Pain is both processed physically and psychologically in my experience. Is the suggestion that if I feel pain psychologically I'm abnormal? Catharsis is a name given to a human action as old as time.
> Because people who "punch the wall" are, according to multiple studies, more likely to lash out and be abusive.
I would be curious to see the studies, perhaps people who lash out are more likely to have issues worth punching a wall over? All sorts of biases could come into play.
> Have you tried not punching the wall and have a time out instead?
The times I've punched a wall are too few to derive meaningful statistics vs other methods of unwinding.
Clickbait is what they do.
I'll stick to forms of science that actually know something worthwhile. And when I need to intuit anything about human behavior, then I know that I am on my own.
With that said, here's my criteria for a study I'm willing to take seriously:
* n = 10000
* The effect size is big
* It's measured in at least on western, one eastern and one other culture
* It's independently reproduced by at least 2 other independent universities/research institutes
There are probably another few things, but I think you get the spirit.
Relying on psychological theories becomes problematic when the results are like normal studies (e.g. n = 100). A benign example: I am sure that the overjustification effect and self-determination theory have a link. In both bodies of literature I have never seen that link being investigated. If it would be investigated then there is a chance that the effect might be rebranded to something else in the name of precision. IMO it seems to be used too often as a euphemism to carve out your own research space.
Most cognitive biases are not substantiated enough to be relied upon as psychological theories (there was a good HN post about this as well). And for me, that’s problematic and something to get angry about because media but also university professors tell with too much confidence that these ideas are true and are the best knowledge we currently have. I found personally, that I can better rely on how humans work by using my own mind (a combination of common sense and experience for edge cases).
Science should be about uncovering what is true, as best as it possibly can. When it comes to the field of psychology, I feel that spirit has been mostly lost.
Feel free to disagree, but if you do then I ask you: have you tried to rely on psychological theories to improve your life and take their advice to heart? If not, then you might want to give it a try. And I hope that it has a more positive effect on you than it did on me. The effect on me has an amazing silver lining but ultimately it is very bitter sweet. Contrast this with computer science which was painful but ultimately delightfully sweet because most of what was taught can be programmed into a computer and is therefore true (at least, true on some level).