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Venting! It just feels so good, right? Cathartic, helpful, even. Like letting out steam from a pressure cooker. But researchers at Ohio State University analyzed 154 studies on anger and found basically no evidence that venting helps reduce anger. 

      There is a common myth that venting anger is a productive way of dealing with anger. Expressing anger feels good in the moment, but in the long run, it makes you more angry and more aggressive. Then, no worries. Just go for a jog or run instead. That’ll help except there’s actually very little evidence that that’s any help either. In fact, jogging may even make things worse. So, what’s going on? Anger is an emotion that is associated with psychological arousal, which means that your heart rate is increasing. Your blood pressure is up. Your breathing rate is up. And when you’re doing activities that have the same effect on your body, you are feeding the anger. You’re putting more wood on the fire. 

      So, what should we do? Well, put simply, calming techniques. Basically, anything that reduces physiological arousal could be worth trying. Things like meditation, mindfulness, yoga, or even just taking a time out or counting to 10. Interestingly, not all physical exercise has the same effect. Not all forms of physical activity are bad when it comes to anger. According to a meta-analysis, ball sports and physical education classes are actually good when it comes to anger.

      That is because they introduce an aspect of play which induces positive emotions, such as happiness and joy. There’s also a social aspect to it, so we’re interacting with other people. You’re getting positive feedback from your coach. We think that jogging has a negative because it’s more monotone; it’s more boring for many people. It’s repetitive movement, so you have time to ruminate on your anger and really think about your anger. That might make you angrier. The findings were remarkably consistent across countries, cultures, genders, races, even between those in prison or not. Essentially, venting anger as a way of coping with it is more likely to wind you up than cool you down. So, it doesn’t seem like the best strategy, as tempting as it may be.