Humans show signs of stress to make themselves more likeable as well as to act more positively towards them, reveals a new study conducted by Nottingham Trent University and University of Portsmouth researchers.
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Researchers looked at the thought of why humans, much like other primates showed signs of stress -- either nail-biting, scratching, fidgeting, touching face, hair etc. -- that showed that the individual was feeling unsettled.
To analyse this thought, they videotaped participants while taking part in a mock presentation and interview that they had to prepare at a very short notice. The video was presented to raters who were asked to rate how stressed the person in the video was.?
Researchers found that participants who actually reported being stressed were the ones perceived as being more stressed by the raters. Even those participating in activities such as face touching, nail-biting and other nervous behaviour were flagged to be stressed.
The findings reveal that humans can accurately detect when someone is feeling stressed from their behaviour.
Researchers also saw that participants who were identified as more stressed during the task were also seen to be more likeable by others, offering an idea on why humans evolved to show their stress signals.
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Dr Jamie Whitehouse, a research fellow at NTU's School of Social Sciences and research lead explains,? "We wanted to find out what advantages there might be in signalling stress to others, to help explain why stress behaviours have evolved in humans. If producing these behaviours leads to positive social interactions from others who want to help, rather than negative social interactions from those who want to compete with you, then these behaviours are likely to be selected in the evolutionary process. We are a highly cooperative species compared to many other animals, and this could be why behaviours which communicate weakness were able to evolve."
Co-author Professor Bridget Waller added, "If the individuals are inducing an empathetic-like response in the raters, they may appear more likeable because of this, or it could be that an honest signal of weakness may represent an example of benign intent and/or a willingness to engage in a cooperative rather than competitive interaction, something which could be a 'likable' or preferred trait in a social partner. This fits with the current understanding of expressivity, which tends to suggest that people who are more "emotionally expressive" are more well-liked by others and have more positive social interactions."
Researchers are now looking at whether young children also show similar sensitivity to stress states. Observing childhood, researchers can comprehend how difficult it can be to detect stress as well as identifying how exposure to adult¡¯s stress could impact young children.
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