Richard Petty, professor and chair, Department of Psychology, is co-author of a new study finding that when people wrote down their thoughts on a piece of paper and threw the paper away, they mentally discarded the thoughts as well. Some types of psychological therapy use variations of this concept by trying to get patients to discard their negative thoughts, but Petty said this is the first study he is aware of that has validated that approach.

“However you tag your thoughts -- as trash or as worthy of protection -- seems to make a difference in how you use those thoughts,” said Petty. “At some level, it can sound silly. But we found that it really works -- by physically throwing away or protecting your thoughts, you influence how you end up using those thoughts. Merely imagining engaging in these actions has no effect.”

The findings suggest that people can treat their thoughts as material, concrete objects, Petty said. That is evident in the language we use. “We talk about our thoughts as if we can visualize them. We hold our thoughts. We take stances on issues, we lean this way or that way. This all makes our thoughts more real to us.”

Petty conducted the research with a team of researchers from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in Spain and Ohio State.

Read the entire press release, written by Jeff Grabmeier, director, Ohio State Office of Research and Innovation Communications, http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/matthoughts.htm