Called misokinesia – meaning 'hatred of movements' – this strange phenomenon has been little studied by scientists, but has been noted in the research of a related condition, misophonia: a disorder where people become irritated upon hearing certain repetitious sounds.
To improve our understanding, Jawal and fellow researchers conducted what they said was the "first in-depth scientific exploration" of misokinesia – and the results indicate that heightened sensitivity to fidgeting is something a large number of people have to deal with.
Across a series of experiments involving over 4,100 participants, the researchers measured the prevalence of misokinesia in a cohort of university students and people from the general population, assessing the impacts it had upon them, and exploring why the sensations might manifest.
"These results support the conclusion that misokinesia sensitivity is not a phenomenon restricted to clinical populations, but rather, is a basic and heretofore under-recognized social challenge shared by many in the wider, general population.".
The phenomenon seems to vary significantly among individuals, with some people reporting only low sensitivity to fidgeting stimuli, while others feel highly affected.
The results based on early experiments were inconclusive on that front, with the researchers finding no firm evidence that reflexive visual attentional mechanisms substantively contribute to misokinesia sensitivity.
While we're still only at the outset then of exploring where misokinesia may spring from on a cognitive level – other than, you know, fidgeting people being kind of annoying to some – the researchers do have some hypothetical leads they want to pursue in future research.
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