REAL LIFE NEWS: TO FIDGET OR NOT TO FIDGET, THAT IS THE QUESTION
by Hazed
If you’re going for a job interview you don’t want to appear tense or nervous. So you would think that curtailing your fidgeting would help.
But that depends on whether you are male or female, according to some new research. Men who fidget get more relaxed in job interviews, which means they find it easier to tackle complex problems. But for women, it’s the opposite - fidgeting increases stress.
Researchers from the University of Roehampton, London, put groups of men and women through mock job interviews. Each volunteer was monitored while they gave a five-minute presentation about why they were the best person for the job, and followed it up with a complex mental arithmetic test.
The results showed that the men fidgeted twice as much as the women, on average. But they made far fewer mistakes in the mental arithmetic test, and came out of the mock interviewing feeling a lot let stressed. In particular, the more they fidgeted, the more sums they got right.
By contrast, the more fidgetty women made more than twice as many mistakes as the women that stayed still, and felt more stressed.
The researchers point out that men who fidget in interviews might feel more relaxed, but potential employers might view them as being nervous, so it’s not necessarily something you should force yourself to do!
