Have you ever had the sense that you are more sensitive than other people?
Perhaps you find yourself experiencing more emotion than friends or family, or find yourself overwhelmed by bright lights, sirens or the feel of certain fabrics.
If this sounds familiar, you might be a “highly sensitive person”, or HSP as it’s often shortened to.
Becky Black was in her 50s when she read a book by American psychologists Elaine and Arthur Aron explaining the concept.
Dr Black had a sense since childhood that she was different to other people and suddenly felt understood.
“I just ate it up. As I was reading, I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, this is me,'” she says.
“It felt to me that the tectonic plates of my life really shifted when I learned about this sensitive personality trait. It just helped me understand so many aspects of my experience that I hadn’t been able to explain.
“My mum used to say, ‘You are too sensitive.’ I used to think that was a fault — that I needed to be less sensitive.”
What is a highly sensitive person?
Dr Black now works as a lecturer at the Centre for Wellbeing Science at Melbourne University’s Graduate School of Education. She studied highly sensitive people and wellbeing for her PhD.
In the research literature, high sensitivity, also known as sensory processing sensitivity (SPS), has four key characteristics:
- Greater depth of information processing;
- Heightened emotional reactivity and empathy;
- Increased awareness of subtle changes in one’s environment; and
- Greater propensity for overstimulation.
Dutch researcher Sharell Bas and her colleagues interviewed 26 highly sensitive people and found people experienced SPS in different ways.
However, there were some common threads, such as strong emotional reactions, overstimulation from sensory experiences and heightened awareness and perception.
“Not everyone will be sensitive in the same way to the same things,” Dr Black says.
“[A sensitive person could] smell a very subtle scent and the person next to them might not smell it at all … [or] there might be a light shining onto a screen that is hugely annoying for a sensitive person.”
In one study, researchers found that 47 per cent of individual variations in sensitivity were genetically determined, while the remaining 53 per cent were due to environmental influences.
Highly sensitive people can have a heightened awareness of the emotions and moods of others. (Unsplash: Ketut Sabiyanto)
How to tell if you’re a highly sensitive person
As part of their work, the Arons developed a self-test to help measure high sensitivity.
The questionnaire asks people if they agree with statements such as “I am easily overwhelmed by strong sensory input“, “Other people’s moods affect me” and “I am easily overwhelmed by … bright lights, strong smells, coarse fabrics or sirens close by”.
Based on this test, the Arons estimated that roughly 15–20 per cent of the population are HSPs.
However, they say the self-test is not meant to “diagnose or exclude the diagnosis of any condition”.
Being highly sensitive is not a disorder
Nick Haslam is a professor of psychology at the University of Melbourne. He says high sensitivity is not a disorder or psychological condition and it may overlap with personality traits such as introversion and neuroticism.
“It’s one of these concepts which most of us in academic psychology have heard of, but it’s not really a mainstream focus of research. [That is] not to dismiss it, it’s just to say that it’s not one of the concepts we are most familiar with,” he says.
“The Arons who came up with the idea … are legitimate psychologists. The work was published in legitimate journals, it just hasn’t really become a mainstream idea.”
In recent years, however, there has been increased interest in high sensitivity — including from celebrities like pop star Lorde who described herself as a HSP in an interview with Vogue magazine.
In 2021, Lorde said her high sensitivity made it difficult to be in the public spotlight. (Supplied)
Professor Haslam says while labels and categories can be helpful in terms of understanding and reframing our behaviours, it’s important to remember that personality doesn’t fall neatly into types or categories.
“There’s never any personality characteristic that is really a category. There are no personality types in the sense of groups where you are absolutely in it or out of it,” he says.
“These things fall on a bell curve. There’s going to be few people at the high end, few people at the low end and lots in the middle.”
Why the concept of high sensitivity can be helpful
Dr Black knew she had stronger reactions to some stimuli than other people, but she also felt a high sense of wellbeing.
She was trying to find a way to better understand her experience — and Aron’s concept helped immensely. It’s something she also encountered in her research.
“From the interviews I did, that was a pretty common experience for the people I spoke to — just being able to feel more accepting and not feeling they had to change who they were,” Dr Black says.
Another benefit of the concept, Dr Black says, is that it reframes sensitivity from being a negative to something that can be positive, too.
“Soothing that self-critical voice can have a huge impact on your overall wellbeing. I know that was certainly the case for me, and also the case for people I interviewed.”