Low self-esteem sucks. It makes you sad and certainly doesn't attract the ladies. Well now a new online dating study has determined more bad news about non-confident people.
California psychology professors conducted a study which measured how people with varying levels of self-esteem react to rejection. Not only were those with lower self-esteem (as determined by a questionnaire) more likely to negatively interpret rejecting events, but they also reacted physiologically by producing more stress hormones than people with higher levels of self-esteem.
They used online dating as the method for their research, with participants preparing for an online chat with an attractive person they perceived to be in the next room. But really, there was no one in the next room. Participants looked over a profile with a picture and bio of the other individual and were told that the other individual was viewing their picture and reading about them at the same time. But immediately before the online chat was supposed to begin, the researcher delivered the news that the other participant opted to leave the study.
The high self-esteem people thought nothing of it. The other person was probably just busy and had to leave. But the low self-esteem people took it very personally, assuming it was something about their own profile that caused the other person to bolt.
Saliva samples were also taken throughout the study to measure cortisol levels, and the feeling low lads had high levels, meaning high stress and very bad on the body.
Maire Ford, co-author of the study, hopes that making people aware of how they're reacting in similar dating and social situations and how it's affecting their bodies may help them minimize their stress responses, while become healthier in the process.
Source: Behavorial Health Central
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self-esteem,
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Men's health