Seeing Red

Colors affect people in strange ways and red is one of those colors. It has been discovered that students who even glanced at that color before taking an SAT test got lower scores.

In LiveScience.com, Sara Goudarzi quotes psychologist Andrew J. Elliot as saying, “Care must be taken in how red is used in achievement contexts and illustrate how color can act as a subtle environmental cue that has important influences on behavior.”

“Seeing Red” is another way of saying you feel angry. While it is a common assumption that an angry person needs to blow off steam or risk going through the roof, research in psychology shows just the opposite. According to psychologist Jeffrey M. Lohr, research has consistently showed that venting anger is at best ineffective and in some cases is even harmful.

Lohr says, “Expressing anger does not reduce aggressive tendencies and likely makes it worse.” In study after study, subjects who vented anger against inanimate objects, who vented directly against the person who induced their anger, who vented hostility by playing football or who vented verbally about an employer?all showed more resentment than those who had not vented. In some experiments, venting led to aggression against innocent bystanders. Even those who firmly believed in the value of venting ended up more hostile and aggressive after thumping pillows or engaging in other expressions of anger.

According to Lohr, “What people fail to realize is that the anger would have dissipated had they not vented. Moreover, it would have dissipated more quickly had they not vented and tried to control their anger instead.” Other studies have shown that anger dissipates faster when people take deep breaths, relax or take a time out. Any action that “makes it impossible to sustain the angry state” can help defuse anger.

Art credit: freeimages.co.uk

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