D o you notice faint sensations that no one else can see? Are you startled? Are the feelings of the people around you swaying your mood? A highly sensitive person is a personality profile that is of increasing interest to both scientists and armchair psychologists.
In my embarrassment, I will cover my eyes with my hands when I see violence or pain on TV. Strong smells or bright lights may be a symptom of a greater sensitivity for other HSPs.
In the past few years, a number of celebrities have come out as HSPs, and the term is now used in the pages of lifestyle magazines.
Prof Corina Greven of the Radboud University medical centre in the Netherlands says that a lot of people still think of high sensitivity as a risk.
The truth is more complex. High and low sensitivity can have advantages and disadvantages. With a bit of self-awareness, we can all find the right ways to cope with our personality profile.
The idea of a highly sensitive person is reminiscent of 19th-century diagnoses of neurasthenia and hysteria. The research of American psychologists Elaine and Arthur Aron in the mid 1990s started the modern interest in HSPs.
They wanted to capture someone's excitability in the face of physical, social or emotional stimuli. The point was to learn how forcefully the central nervous system reacted to stimulation, regardless of whether the excitement was positive or negative.
The researchers designed a series of questions that could be answered on a scale of 1 to 7. The items were included.
Do you find that you need to withdraw into a dark room or bed during busy days, or do you prefer to keep your privacy?
Do you know what needs to be done to make people more comfortable in a physical environment, such as changing the lighting or the seating?
Do you find it hard to have so much going on at once?
Does being very hungry affect your concentration or mood?
Do you enjoy the arts or music?
The top 20% of the survey were considered to be HSPs. The scores of people who are sensitive are correlated with the scores of people who are not.
People with HSP report being more perceptive than other people. They may find it easier to pick out faint sounds that no one else can hear. One study participant told Greven that he could spot who was feeling well and who was fighting as a couple, or where there was tension, by looking around the group.
Eva Pama-van, a psychologist in the Netherlands, describes it as feeling like a small boat on a lake surrounded by larger ships. You are shocked by the smallest of ripples. Her high sensitivity means that a single smile from a stranger can lift her whole mood.
Some cynics may be skeptical of any trait measured through self-report, but people's scores on the HSP scale seem to reflect objective differences in the brain's responses to its environment. More sensitive individuals seem to show greater reactivity in the sensory cortices associated with perceptual processing, as well as regions such as the insula and the amygdala that are involved with emotion. They show increased activity in the prefrontal cortex and other areas that are involved in cognitive tasks such as planning and abstract thinking.
The findings would seem to support the claim that the world is feeling more intensely. They are more likely to experience tingles in response to whispered voice or sound of brushing hair, according to a recent paper.
Sensory processing sensitivity seems to be a product of nature and nurture. In 2020, Prof Michael Pluess of Queen Mary University of London asked 2,866 twins to take a version of the scale designed for adolescents. He found that half of the variation between individuals could be explained by their genes, by comparing the scores of the people who shared the same genetic blueprint and those who did not.
It is not clear what those genes are. The 5-HTTLPR gene regulates the levels of the neurotransmitter around our synapses. Serotonin is known to affect mood and attention, and different variant of the gene seem to promote more or less efficient serotonin processing than others, which could have immediate implications for someone's responses to their environment. The link to sensory processing sensitivity seems to be weak and the importance may have been overstated.
People with mental health problems are more likely to have greater sensitivity.
The influence of sensory processing sensitivity is not a universal risk factor. One study looked at people's relationships with their parents and their mental health. It found that people with high sensitivity were more likely to develop depression. High sensitivity had no effect on people in loving homes.
A sample of 185 adults from the UK showed that people who had experienced adverse childhood experiences had lower life satisfaction later in life.
HSPs are more responsive to therapeutic interventions. In 2015, Pluess studied the effects of a prevention programme that was delivered to children at risk of depression over a year. He found that the programme was most effective at reducing depression scores among children with high sensitivity. They were able to take on the lessons of resilience training because of their increased perceptivity.
Some researchers have compared highly sensitive people to orchids because of the findings. According to this theory, people with less sensitivity are more like dandelions than they are. The people in the middle are called tulips.
In the workplace, high sensitivity may be relevant. Highly sensitive persons may be more susceptible to emotional exhaustion in teams with toxic dynamics. They will find it more difficult to deal with the negative vibes around them if they are not bullied themselves.
In a nurturing environment, greater sensitivity could be an advantage. There is evidence that shows that HSPs are better able to pick up implicit patterns that would escape others. It may help them to learn new procedures without having someone explain everything to them. As they consider the needs of their colleagues, they may prove to be better team players. Pama-van says managers should be aware of the pros and cons of the trait.
Twenty-five years after the invention of the HSP scale, the existence of the trait should be of little doubt. She argues that we still need more robust research examining the neural mechanisms behind the trait.
It is possible to tailor psychological interventions to cater for different people. Treatments that specifically address the difficulties of high sensitivity could be included. We may need new approaches to help people with low sensitivity, who seem to respond less well to traditional psychological interventions and who may need very different forms of support.
I have found that the knowledge of sensory processing sensitivity and its influence on our lives has been very useful. I can happily devote myself to long stretches of concentrated work in a career in writing. Being an HSP has helped explain why I am easily distracted by small gestures in social interactions, such as the tone of someone's voice or a brief change in someone's facial expression. It means that I don't need to feel embarrassed by my extreme dislike of horror films.
There is room for all kinds of personality types. You can find your niche if you are dandelion, tulip or orchid.
Canongate published The Expectation Effect: How your mindset can transform your life by David Robson. You can support the Guardian and Observer by ordering your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
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