The effects of written catharsis on anger relief

Previous studies have found that "general catharsis", such as hitting sandbags, does not reduce but increases an individual's anger feeling and aggressive behavior. Although the "goal catharsis" that is directed at attacking targets can temporarily relieve anger, there is a risk of increasing the tendency of aggressive personality if it is used for a long time. These findings raise serious doubts and challenges to the traditional view that "anger must be released" held by the classic catharsis theory that many people still trust. The present study compared the effects of "general catharsis" and "goal catharsis" on anger-related responses among Chinese people, and the Chinese written form of catharsis was used in this study. The results showed that after participants were provoked, the aggressive behavior of participants who wrote down their dissatisfaction (general catharsis condition) was significantly higher than that of participants who wrote to attack someone who irritated them (goal catharsis condition) as well as that of participants who completed a simple recall task (control condition), and there was no significant difference in the aggressive behavior level between the latter two cases. These results suggest that the catharsis effect is no better than a simple recall task similar to attention distraction, that is, aggressive catharsis is not an effective way for anger relief.