No, it's not absurd. People often have the mistaken belief that exercising their frustration or anger or whatever (e.g. punching pillows) is somehow a good way to manage their emotions. But alas: it's not. It actually amplifies negative emotions and associates positive reward signals with those emotions.

"Catharsis" is the pseudo-est of pseudoscience, but we have lots of very angry pillow-punchers wondering why they can't punch the most lifelike pillows they can find :(

> it's not. It actually amplifies negative emotions and associates positive reward signals with those emotions

Nothing amplifies negative emotions like antagonistic tone-policing.

Really? You should get out more. There are plenty of things more worthy of negative emotions than that.

And you are the arbiter of how people should emotionally respond to things?

Arbiter would imply I have some authority over it, which I don’t. But I do get to share my opinions, just like you do!

So by your logic, video games DO cause violence.

If you play video games as an expression of your rage, then yeah probably. I don’t know literally anyone who plays video games for that purpose though.

You think the people hopping on Xbox Live and verbally abusing 14 year olds are getting offline and treating their in-person relations better for it?