During their five-year study of different methods for reducing hostility in surviving cardiac patients, Dr. Carl Thoresen and his colleagues at Stanford University were astonished to discover that one of the most powerful techniques a patient could use was simply his attitude. The people most likely to continue suffering the effects of their resentful behavior, they found, were the ones who resisted thinking about ethical principles or those people who believed they could go on acting punitively toward others without paying a physical and emotional price. On the other hand, those who recognized a relationship between hostility and physical-emotional collapse seemed to automatically increase their chances of recovery.