Looking stressed makes you more likeable, study says
Some people have a hard time expressing their feelings. But when it comes to showing if you’re stressed out, a new study by scientists at Nottingham Trent University and the University of Portsmouth stated that it makes a person more “likeable” and encourages others to act more positively towards you.
As part of the study, researchers looked at the stress behaviors of participants, who were asked to do a mock presentation and interview in a short amount of time. The whole process was filmed on video, which was then presented to other respondents who rated them based on the question, “How stressed is this person?”
Those who were perceived as “more stressed” were showing more “self-directed behaviors” like scratching, nail-biting, fidgeting, and touching their face or hair. These findings suggest that a person’s body language is one of the factors that led to raters detecting those who looked like they were being pushed to the limit.
The stressed participants are deemed to be more likeable since they show their vulnerable side. Dr. Jamie Whitehouse, research lead at NTU’s School of Social Sciences said, ‘We wanted to find out what advantages there might be in signaling stress to others, to help explain why stress behaviors have evolved in humans.’
Whitehouse added that these behaviors could be selected in the evolutionary process if it leads to positive social interactions with others, rather than negative ones. He explained, ‘We are a highly cooperative species compared to many other animals, and this could be why behaviors which communicate weakness were able to evolve.’
Meanwhile, co-author Dr. Sophie Milward said that their team is investigating if young children also show this sensitivity to stress states. She said, ‘By looking at childhood we can understand how difficult it is to detect stress, as well as identifying how exposure to adults’ stress might impact young children.’
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Source: we the pvblic
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