Close X
Monday, November 11, 2024
ADVT 
Interesting

Simple walk can reveal your mood

Darpan News Desk IANS, 25 Oct, 2014 07:20 AM
  • Simple walk can reveal your mood
Not just our mood affects how we walk, our walk can also disclose whether a person is happy or sad, reveals fascinating research.
 
It found that people who were prompted to walk in a more depressed style - with less arm movement and their shoulders rolled forward - experienced worse moods than those who were induced to walk in a happier style.
 
“It is not surprising that our mood, the way we feel, affects how we walk but we want to see whether the way we move also affects how we feel,” said Nikolaus Troje from Queen's University in Ontario, Canada.
 
For the study, the researchers showed participants a list of positive and negative words such as "pretty," "afraid" and "anxious" and then asked them to walk on a treadmill while they measured their gait and posture.
 
A screen showed the subjects a gauge that moved left or right depending on whether their walking style was more depressed or happier.
 
The subjects did not know what the gauge was measuring.
 
Researchers told some subjects to try and move the gauge left, while others were told to move it right.
 
Afterwards, participants had to write down as many words as they could remember from the earlier list of positive and negative words.
 
“Those who had been walking in a depressed style remembered many more negative words. The difference in recall suggests that the depressed walking style actually created a more depressed mood,” Troje explained.
 
Clinically depressed patients are known to remember negative events and remembering the bad make them feel even worse.
 
“If you can break that self-perpetuating cycle, you might have a strong therapeutic tool to work with depressive patients,” researchers noted.
 
The study was published in the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry.

MORE Interesting ARTICLES

These days, you need self-control to stay alive

These days, you need self-control to stay alive
This writer saved at least five people from being physically attacked yesterday. How? By exercising self-control. "Idiots have a right to live," is the wonderfully....

These days, you need self-control to stay alive

Why drinking makes a smile more contagious among men

Why drinking makes a smile more contagious among men
Alcohol induces a sort of "social bravery" among men, disrupting processes that would normally prevent them from responding to another person's smile, says....

Why drinking makes a smile more contagious among men

Jet fuel oil seed boosts liver detoxification

Jet fuel oil seed boosts liver detoxification
Crushed seeds left after oil extraction from Camelina sativa seed, an oilseed crop used in jet fuel, may boost liver detoxification enzymes nearly fivefold, says a study....

Jet fuel oil seed boosts liver detoxification

14 percent Britons have partners they have never met!

14 percent Britons have partners they have never met!
In an indication of how much the virtual world has become part of our real lives, a survey has found that one in seven people in Britain has relationship...

14 percent Britons have partners they have never met!

Robot to figure out if Thai cuisine is genuine or not

Robot to figure out if Thai cuisine is genuine or not
The Thai government is set to unveil a robotic taster that will determine if the food you have ordered anywhere in the world at a Thai restaurant is genuine or not....

Robot to figure out if Thai cuisine is genuine or not

Beware! Anti-odour clothes may leave you smelly

Beware! Anti-odour clothes may leave you smelly
Planning to buy an anti-odour shirt to stay fresh all day long? Think again as new research shows that anti-odour clothing may not be living up to its promise....

Beware! Anti-odour clothes may leave you smelly