Dr Michelle Dickinson: nanotechnologist on the new - and unexpected - solution to anger

If you are feeling angry, you might be tempted to vent, but science has a much better, evidence based solution for you.

Research published this week in the journal Scientific Reports involved scientists asking 100 volunteers to write an opinion piece about important social issues such as whether smoking in public should be banned. They were told that their writing would be evaluated and feedback would be provided to them.

The volunteers spent time writing their pieces, and no matter how good they were, every volunteer received insulting and negative feedback about their work and were scored low on intelligence, interest, friendliness, logic and rationality.

They also received insulting feedback that included statements like 'I cannot believe that an educated person would think like this'.

Immediately after receiving the insulting feedback, all of the volunteers showed an increase in their subjective rating of anger.

The volunteers were then given a piece of paper and asked to write down their immediate thoughts and feelings about the situation.

One group was asked to either throw away the piece of paper or to place it in a paper shredder and watch it be shredded. A second group was told to keep the paper either in a clear plastic box or a clear folder on their desk.

The results showed that the volunteers who kept their paper thoughts stayed angry, however the volunteers who threw away or who shredded their written thoughts returned to their initial calm state very quickly.

The researchers themselves were surprised at how effective destroying or disposing the paper was in immediately reducing feelings of anger, and seem to have found a cheap and easy way to help people to feel calm.

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