Realistically, I'm not sure how you would even design a study to accurately measure the effects. Any sort of cathartic experience would necessarily be self-reported and we all know the accuracy of self-report studies.
I have an intuition that catharsis as part of a grief process might be quite different (more useful) than in situations where the anger arises out of other circumstances.
> Any sort of cathartic experience would necessarily be self-reported and we all know the accuracy of self-report studies.
That's not true. In the article, they mention observational studies wherein folks who vent are more likely to lash out. That isn't self-reporting.
I don't think aggressive venting alone is going to do much, but whenever I come across one of these studies that purport to show catharsis as not existing, I can't avoid feeling there must be more to the story.
Some people are also going to interpret "catharsis/venting does not work" as meaning it's perfectly wise to not listen with actual empathy and just slam solutions at people instead. But that also doesn't work.
One of the earlier studies just had people's anger tracked(anger has a very clear physiological response). So no need to have it self reported.