According To Research, Shorter Height Can Lead To Paranoid Thoughts

People often lie about their height as an instinctive way to seem important or worthy to the individual. This boosts your self esteem, and is often looked over as a lie. And it is true that taller people have certain social advantages. But is there more to the insecurities about ones’ height?

According to a research in 2014, a individual may be paranoid and insecure about their height. A virtual reality study was conducted where these individuals traveled on a public transport virtually at their normal height. Their subsequent feelings were recorded.

The same group was asked to take the test again, but this time, their height was reduced one head. You might consider riding the subway as a nominal task, but then the testimonies of the subjects were recorded again. This time, the experimenters concluded that the feelings conveyed were significantly different from the previous encounter, and thus it had a direct correlation with the changes in their height.

They felt more conscious, weak, and incompetent when their height was lowered. But the interesting part of the experiment is that they were not informed about the change in their height before the simulation began. One participant felt that other passengers were displaying hostility, while actually, nothing changed among the other passengers, including their expression.

The sole purpose of the experiment is to understand the levels of paranoia and how to combat them, rather than ridicule short people by accusing them of paranoia and for being jumpy. The researchers believe that inferiority complex and the feeling of being small has direct connections to paranoia. Thus it is concluded that making someone else feel valid and positive about their bodies might help in combating paranoid thoughts.

Virtual reality can play a major role in boosting self confidence in people who have shorter height. If they are introduced into the VR as taller people, they might get their self-esteem back and help in the real world as well.

But let this study also shed light on the fact that all people who are below the average height may not go through these problems but lead a more self-respecting life. This case is only true in the selected group of people that were shortlisted for the study, and they did not have a history of mental illness. The experiment tries to prove that people who look different than most have an inherent self deprecating conditioning  that can be undone with the help of virtual reality.