How to reduce our anger
Scientific litsketch on boosting mental health
Can we train our mind to see more happiness in others? Can this training help improve our mental health? Research shows that training our mind to find more happiness in other people’s facial expressions can significantly reduce our anger and aggressive behaviour (Penton-Voak et al., 2013).
In an experiment, people were divided into two groups. Group One was asked to rate how happy or angry a person in a series of photos is feeling. Group One was trained to rate the person in a photo who is half smiling and half frowning as a happy rather than an angry person. Group Two did the same task but was not trained to rate ambiguous faces as happy faces. So Group One was trained to see more happiness in other people than Group Two.
The results showed that Group One experienced less anger and aggressive behaviour than Group Two during the next two weeks. When we force ourselves to see more happiness in others, we can be less angry and aggressive.
Understanding what makes others happy is the most important skill as a better negotiator, a marketer, an entrepreneur, a leader, an effective follower, an employee, a partner, a lover, a father and as a mother. So practise your skill of recognising the happiness in others and what makes them happy. This will also help you reduce your anger and aggression in life. Let's learn to rejoice with those who rejoice!
Penton-Voak, I. S., Thomas, J., Gage, S. H., McMurran, M., McDonald, S., & Munafò, M. R. (2013). Increasing recognition of happiness in ambiguous facial expressions reduces anger and aggressive behavior. Psychological Science, 24(5), 688-697.