Confession does wonders for the body. For thousands of years, humans have incorporated the practice into religious rituals, therapy groups, secret diaries and more – even sharing their innermost thoughts with strangers.
Social psychologist James Pennebaker was studying the body’s physiological response to stress when he stumbled on a confession-related phenomenon that sparked decades of groundbreaking research: the polygraph confession effect.
James Pennebaker had been invited to give a series of talks to top-level polygraphers working for the FBI and CIA. In late-night conversations following the events, these experts captured Pennebaker’s interest with similar stories. A bank vice-president, for example, showed intense physiological stress while being questioned. When he broke down and confessed to embezzlement, however, he became extraordinarily relaxed. Many polygraphers had made the same observation – even while facing severe consequences, individuals felt liberated after confessing their actions.
Through the 1980s, Pennebaker developed research supporting the idea that secrets contribute to physical illness. Specifically, he discovered that people who experienced trauma and kept it secret were most likely to have health problems. This discovery led Pennebaker to launch his well-known studies using expressive writing. “If keeping a secret about a trauma was unhealthy,” he writes, “it made sense that having people reveal the secret should improve health.” As a social psychologist, Pennebaker was concerned about the implications of asking people to share their secrets with another person. So, he asked them to write about it.
Pennebaker ran his seminal study using expressive writing in 1986. Over four days, participants wrote continuously for 15 minutes each day. The control group was instructed to write objectively about superficial topics. Meanwhile, participants in the experimental group were asked to write about the most traumatic experiences of their lives. Pennebaker’s instructions ran something like this:
For the next four days, I would like you to write your very deepest thoughts and feelings about the most traumatic experience of your entire life, or an extremely important emotional issue. You might tie your topic to other parts of your life: your childhood, your relationships with others, your past, present or future. All of your writing is confidential. Don’t worry about spelling, grammar or sentence structure. The only rule is that once you begin writing, you continue until the time is up.
Pennebaker remarks that participants were stunned by these instructions. “Previously, virtually no one had ever encouraged them to write about some of the most significant experiences of their lives. Many students came out of their writing rooms in tears,” he writes, “but they kept coming back. And, by the last day of the experiment, most reported that the experience had been profoundly important for them.”
Following the experiment, Pennebaker tracked several measurements. His most striking finding was that relative to the control group, the experimental group made significantly fewer visits to the doctor in the following months. Pennebaker’s results prompted hundreds of follow-up studies by his team and others. They found evidence that people who practiced expressive writing experienced many benefits, including:
Initially, Pennebaker attributed the benefits of expressive writing to a cathartic effect. People confronted past traumatic events by expressing their difficult feelings – therefore, they felt better. He became fascinated, however, with further questions: What is it about writing that makes a difference? Why do some people get better while others don’t? Can we identify healthy writing?
Pennebaker’s questions led him to study the ways people use language. After developing his own text analysis program, he began analyzing writing samples to predict which participants would show health improvements.
To Pennebaker’s surprise, the key differences were not found in the use of content words (happy, crying, idea, badly), but rather how people used “junk” or function words (I, the, and, to, a). Using hundreds of thousands of writing samples, Pennebaker made a surprising discovery about the role of language in coping with trauma.
For example, people who moved in a positive direction wrote about their situation from multiple perspectives. They began with “I”-focused language to describe their own viewpoint. In later sessions, these individuals used “he/she/they”-oriented language before shifting back to “I.” According to Pennebaker, this cycle represents the helpful ability to consider different viewpoints – and a key factor in helping people process their most difficult experiences.
People who improved also used more cognitive words – like “realize,” “think,” “consider,” “because” and “reason.” These words helped the writer construct a coherent story, experience insights and find a path forward. Across a range of language samples, from expressive writing to speed dating, Pennebaker and his students proved their analysis could predict with startling accuracy which relationships would last, who was telling the truth and which people were coping well with painful experiences.
How might your clients benefit from the healing power of writing? There are several ways you can take advantage of Pennebaker’s research and help clients reap the rewards:
1. Is a secret stressing them out? Encourage clients to write it down.