PEOPLE WHO SIGH MORE OFTEN ARE NOT MORE DEPRESSED OR ANXIOUS, STUDY FINDS
People who sigh more often do not tend to suffer more depressive symptoms compared to those who sigh less, according to new findings published in the Journal of Personality research. The study, which used mobile devices to track sighing, cats doubt on claims that frequently letting out your breath is a general indicator of negative emotional states.
''This study combined two of my interests: understanding nonverbal behavior and improving scientific practices in psychology. Sighing is a common nonverbal behavior and it was very cool to be able to look at data that captured how often people do it 'in the wild' through audio recordings on their phones'', said study author Alexander Danvers of the University of Arizona, who maintains a blog at Psychology Today.
An initial survey of 350 individuals confirmed that people who sigh more frequently are assumed to be more anxious, stressed, tired, lonely, and neurotic. To test this perceived association, Danvers and his colleagues had 510 participants carry a mobile device with an app installed that recorded ambient sounds throughout the day allowing the researchers to objectively measure the number of times an individual sighed.
The participants also completed psychological assessments of depression, anxiety, loneliness, stress, and fatigue. ''The big takeaway from our study is that people who sigh more are not more depressed. They are also not more anxious, more stressed, or lonelier. There was a slight tendency for people who sighed more to be more tired, but this was a weak effect that shouldn't be treated as definitive'', Danvers said.
While the frequency of sighing was not linked to overall distress levels, it is still possible that within-person changes in sighing frequency could be a sign of certain mood changes.
