Talking about bad feelings helps control them

// added February 16, 2009 // 3 comments //
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more from Green:

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/talkitout.html

"Perhaps all those blog posts you wrote about your breakup really did have a purpose.

Naming feelings takes some of the emotional impact out of them by engaging a brain region that aids self-control, according to new research.

In a clever series of experiments, UCLA psychologist Matthew Lieberman found that labeling a picture of someone who looked angry as "angry" reduced the negative emotional feelings that most people feel when viewing such a photograph.

"Putting feelings into words activates this region that's capable of producing emotional regulatory outcomes, which could explain why putting feelings into words dampens them down," Lieberman said in a presentation at the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences annual meeting on Saturday.

One downside: The researchers found that naming happy feelings also reduces their intensity, so the next time you're watching the Puppy Cam, you can keep all those "They are so cute!" comments to yourself."
  1. groups:
    Green,   Earth and Science,   Psychology
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    Green,  Earth and Science,  Psychology,  Brain,  3 more

3 comments // Talking about bad feelings helps control them

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