Dr's Casebook: Throw insults away

Insults tend to cause indignation and anger.Insults tend to cause indignation and anger.
Insults tend to cause indignation and anger.
​​I’m sure you know the old saying ‘sticks and stones can break your bones, but words will never hurt you.’ I have always questioned the truth of this because insults do sting, they do cause anger and for many people they can result in long standinggrudges.

Dr Keith Souter writes: Insults tend to cause indignation and anger. How one deals with them can have a bearing in the work situation, in the community and within the family.

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As the General Election looms, emotions run high so one is more aware of criticism, bad behaviour and insulting language.

I was interested to read some very interesting research from Japan recently published in Scientific Reports which confirms that writing down one’s reaction to a negative incident on a piece of paper and then shredding it or throwing it away reduces feelings of anger.

They liken this to a traditional annual custom called hakidashisara, in which visitors to a shrine smash small discs representing things that make them angry to let go of their frustrations.

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In this study a number of students were asked to write brief opinions about important social problems, such as whether smoking in public spaces should be banned.

They were told that their opinions would be assessed by a researcher. In fact, they were all given the same curt assessment that implied low intelligence, poor logic and ended with a definite insult.

After they received the insulting feedback they were all asked to focus on how they felt.

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They were then split into two groups. In the first group they were asked to either dispose of the paper they wrote in a bin or keep it in a file on their desk.

A second group was told to destroy the document in a shredder or put it in a plastic box.

They were then asked to rate their anger after the insult and after either disposing of or keeping the paper.

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Understandably, all participants reported high anger after receiving the insult.

However, the anger levels of the individuals who discarded their paper in bin or shredded it returned to their initial state.

Conversely, the participants who held on to a hard copy of the insult experienced only a small decrease in their overall anger.

It seems that practicing hakidashisara is a simple and effective way of dealing

with insults.

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