Venting about your frustrations with one friend to another isn’t necessarily cathartic, but it can make the friend you’re talking to like and treat you better, UCLA psychologists say. Their experiments show that under certain conditions, it can be an effective form of competition that makes listeners feel closer to the person venting and like the target less.
Venting about your frustrations with one friend to another isn’t necessarily cathartic, but it can make the friend you’re talking to like and treat you better, UCLA psychologists say. Their experiments show that under certain conditions, it can be an effective form of competition that makes listeners feel closer to the person venting and like the target less.
However, this was not the case when people’s friends overtly derogated others. The real benefits of venting, the researchers conclude, are the strengthening of bonds that might pay off in the future—and the improved health and happiness enjoyed by people who are well liked by their friends.
« Since the 1950s, we’ve known the Freudian catharsis explanation for venting is wrong. It can feel good to vent, but venting doesn’t reliably decrease anger and sometimes even amplifies anger », said lead author Jaimie Krems, an associate professor of psychology at UCLA. « We didn’t have a good explanation for what venting does for us. So we tested a novel alliance view of venting—that under certain parameters, venting can make the people we vent to support us over the people we vent about. »
Most research on close relationships has focused on romantic partnerships. Yet, especially for younger people, friendship plays some of the roles that have traditionally been found in romantic relationships; the U.S. surgeon general has also talked about the « loneliness epidemic.
