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One study found that sarcastic people are more likely to have heart disease due to their persistent negative responses to stressful situations.
In most people, the stressful situation leads to the “fight or flight” response, but if the same event occurs again, the body’s response is weakened.
However, those who are highly skeptical will again experience a high level of stress.
And previous research has shown that psychological stress leads to physiological stress, such as heart disease.
New research shows that sarcastic people are more negatively affected by stressful situations than people who respond to unfortunate events with anger or aggression.
A team of American researchers looked at three different forms of hostility: emotional, behavioral and cognitive, as they are linked to an increased risk of disease.
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And the first study of its kind, published in the journal Psychophysiology, found that cognitive impairment was the biggest risk.
Lead host Alexandra Tyra, PhD student in psychology and neuroscience at Baylor University in Texas, said, “Sarcastic hostility consists of negative beliefs, thoughts and attitudes about the motives, intentions and credibility of others. The results are an increased tendency to engage in satirical hostility – which appears to be hugely important in today’s political and health climate – and could be detrimental not only to our short-term stress responses, but also to our long-term health.
The researchers conducted 15 to 20 minutes of stress tests on 196 participants during two sessions, approximately 7 weeks apart.
They also completed a psychometric scale to measure personality and mood, specifically hostility scores that represent an individual’s propensity for chronic mockery and hatred.
In the stress part of the study, participants were given five minutes to create a five-minute letter to defend themselves against a suspected violation: a traffic offense or a store robbery. They were told it would be videotaped and rated.
“These social and self-assessment methods are designed to augment the experience of stress and have been validated in previous research,” Tyra said.
The volunteers were then asked to take a five-minute mental arithmetic test, which varied slightly with each visit. Heart rate and blood pressure were recorded every two minutes during each phase.
“When you are exposed to the same thing over and over again, the novelty of this situation wears off and you don’t get the same answer you got the first time. That’s a healthy answer,” Tyra said.
But in sarcastic people, the body physically reacts the same way over and over again. “This is not healthy because it increases the pressure on our cardiovascular system over time,” Tyra said.
Previous studies have shown that stress is just as bad for us as being overweight, smoking, and high cholesterol.
Source: Daily Mail
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