By observing the way people who are stressed interact with objects one may be able to interpret how they feel (Krauss et al., 1996). For instance, at a presentation a nervous presenter can often be seen fidgeting with a pen or pointer. This has shown to be true even if people are actively trying to suppress or hide these feelings (Ekman & Friesen, 1967). The behaviors when manipulating objects during a stressful event appear to be qualitatively different from manipulations during boring or neutral events (Kenner, 1984). Yet, no studies were found in which a categorization was made in the types of manipulative hand movements during different arousing and non-arousing conditions. The goal of this study was to explore what manipulative hand movements are evoked when using a pen during a stressful event as compared to a neutral event.
['Miguel Bruns Alonso', 'Michel Varkevisser', 'Paul Hekkert', 'David V. Keyson']
Exploring Manipulative Hand Movements During a Stressful Condition