THE PLANK OCTOBER 28, 2009
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Randall Terry is clearly full of it when he says his ghastly "Burn In Hell" contest, which invites Halloween revelers to submit videos of themselves burning effigies of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, aims to help frustrated Americans "peacefully vent their rage." Terry's goal has always been to pour gasoline on the frustrations of the pro-life populace until it is hot enough to burn down the entire nation in God's name. He needs their rage like Fox News needs GOP press releases. Without it, he is lost.
But Terry's insanity does once more raise a question--applicable to any number of political bomb-throwers these days--about the broader issue of venting vs. stoking.
When people are goaded into acting out, whether by burning images of their elected leaders, unleashing purple-faced tirades at town hall meetings, or replacing the toilet paper in their local Starbucks with pages from Glenn Beck's book, does this make them ultimately more or less likely to grab an assault rifle and scale the nearest clock tower?
Even if the former, obviously vanishingly few would ever indulge such an impulse. But what does the preponderance of research say about the general impact of such calls to arms?
3 comments
Does Venting Anger Feed or Extinguish the Flame? Catharsis, Rumination, Distraction, Anger, and Aggressive Responding Brad J. Bushman Iowa State University, bushman@iastate.edu 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 angered them. There also was a no punching bag control group. People in the rumination group felt angrier than did people in the distraction or control groups. People in the rumination group were also most aggressive, followed respectively by people in the distraction and control groups. Rumination increased rather than decreased anger and aggression. Doing nothing at all was more effective than venting anger. These results directly contradict catharsis theory.
- rjb9
October 28, 2009 at 11:39am
"Effigy Burning: Cheaper Than Prozac!" I don't know, Michelle, that would depend on your co-pay, wouldn't it?
- jacksondyer
October 28, 2009 at 12:01pm
And another question. What responsibility, legal or moral, do the goaders bear for the fruits of their incitement?
- robertgorton
October 28, 2009 at 4:21pm