Psychologists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discovered that some people experience anxiety at rest. The discovery of psychologists refutes the common theory that a person becomes calmer when they rest. The results were published in the journal Journal of Social Psychology.
In psychology, there is an active listening technique that assumes that the specialist does not disturb the patient and merely echoes or asks clarifying questions. This technique is used to make a person feel safe.
The experiment showed that constant listening reduces social anxiety when speakers have high rates of narcissism and increases it when speakers are depressed. The study involved 100 students divided into 50 couples. Subjects had to either take turns listening to each other or just talk. Participants also filled out questionnaires to assess narcissism and social anxiety. They also talked about their feelings during the experiment.
“Interestingly, listeners with high levels of narcissism experienced increased social anxiety in a shared environment when participants took turns talking. Narcissism is a personality trait characterized by a high sense of self-importance and disregard for others. From this it follows that a person with such a personality will experience increased discomfort when he cannot be the center of attention, ”said the scientists.