According to a new first-of-its-kind study, the stressful sensations triggered by seeing others fidget is an exceedingly common psychological phenomenon, affecting as many as one in three people.
Called misokinesia – meaning 'hatred of movements' – this strange phenomenon has been little studied by scientists, but has been noted in the research of a related condition, misophonia: a disorder where people become irritated upon hearing certain repetitious sounds.
Misokinesia is somewhat similar, but the triggers are generally more visual, rather than sound-related, researchers say.
"[Misokinesia] is defined as a strong negative affective or emotional response to the sight of someone else's small and repetitive movements, such as seeing someone mindlessly fidgeting with a hand or foot," a team of researchers, led by first author and psychology PhD student Sumeet Jaswal from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada, explains in a new paper.
"Yet surprisingly, scientific research on the topic is lacking."
To improve our understanding, Jawal and fellow researchers conducted what they say is the "first in-depth scientific exploration" of misokinesia – and the results indicate that heightened sensitivity to fidgeting is something a large number of people have to deal with.
Across a series of experiments involving over 4,100 participants, the researchers measured the prevalence of misokinesia in a cohort of university students and people from the general population, assessing the impacts it had upon them, and exploring why the sensations might manifest. READ MORE
