• DOI:10.1177/0146167202289002
Corpus ID: 5686861

Does Venting Anger Feed or Extinguish the Flame? Catharsis, Rumination, Distraction, Anger, and Aggressive Responding

@article{Bushman2002DoesVA,
  title={Does Venting Anger Feed or Extinguish the Flame? Catharsis, Rumination, Distraction, Anger, and Aggressive Responding},
  author={B. Bushman},
  journal={Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin},
  year={2002},
  volume={28},
  pages={724 - 731}
}

• B. Bushman
• Published 2002
• Psychology
• Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Does distraction or rumination work better to diffuse anger? Catharsis theory predicts that rumination works best, but empirical evidence is lacking. In this study, angered participants hit a punching bag and thought about the person who had angered them (rumination group) or thought about becoming physically fit (distraction group). After hitting the punching bag, they reported how angry they felt. Next, they were given the chance to administer loud blasts of noise to the person who had… Expand

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