Shivering may be linked to a personality trait

It sounds a little strange, but a scientific study suggests so.

Chills are a type of sensation in which you feel as if an electric current starts in the back of your neck or upper back and runs up and down your spine and skull and then merges with the rest of your body. and runs through the entire spine and skull to end up merging with the rest of the body.

Although by its description it seems a process that encloses in itself something of violence, the certain thing is that the chills usually take us to a state of well-being and calm that in many occasions is accompanied by the appearance of the goose bumps.

Chills and personality

What produces the chills? Many things, but, concretely, situations that have to do with the aesthetic appreciation of an image, sound or idea.

However, some research indicates that chills are more than just the result of being in the right place at the right time. Their occurrence and frequency may be related to the personality type of the person experiencing them. In fact, a study recently published in Psychology of Music has found a link between chills while listening to music and a personality dimension related to the personality trait of Openness to Experience.

Research

This research studied the cases of a hundred students who were given to listen to the same recording, containing five pieces of music potentially generating chills of more or less intensity. The occurrence or non-occurrence of shivering was measured by placing electrical sensors on the participants' skin and asking them to press a button when they felt a shiver.

In addition, the components of the participant group also completed personality questionnaires that included items measuring the 5 major personality traits: Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Neuroticism, Responsibility and Agreeableness..

Cross-referencing the data obtained through the personality tests and the stage in which the chills were measured, the researchers went on to see what interactions occurred between the volunteers' personalities and these pleasant sensations produced by listening to music.

The results

As expected (judging from the results obtained in similar studies carried out previously) the frequency with which chills were experienced showed a correlation with the Openness to Experience score.

But what was most curious about the results was that within the indicators used to score Openness to Experience, there was one facet of it that reflected the correlation particularly well. It was a factor called Fantasywhich is the tendency to pay attention to one's own imagined subjective experiences..

How are these findings explained?

Although the appearance of chills may seem unremarkable, this study (along with several others of its kind) shows that the degree to which they appear gives some clues about one's personality type, at least those that are generated while listening to music.

Does this make sense? Actually, yes. Among other things, chills are a symptom of the way you experience the moments when you listen to music, and they provide information about how you feel when you listen to music.and provide information about how you react to certain stimuli.

In turn, these reactions may be modulated by the most predominant personality traits of the individual. In fact, not all people are capable of shivering, and some are more prone to particularly intense shivering: these are not automatic, stereotyped responses that are activated in us in a predictable way. Personal characteristics play a role.

Specifically, the Experience Openness trait and the Fantasy facet measure the way in which you experience situations that are stimulating, immersive, and that direct all of your attention toward stimuli related to strong emotional arousal or a sense of satisfaction.

So you know. Chills aren't just pleasant: they also say things about you..