[1-minute insight]
Do you feel like you’re being ignored?
Feeling ignored causes the same chemical reaction in the brain as experiencing a physical injury
Psychological theory
Why is this?
As humans, we are reliant on social groups for survival because we’ve evolved to do so. Feeling like we’re being ignored destabilises us and we enter a state of disconnection from a fundamental need…
To belong and be part of a group.
It’s fairly well known that there’s a link between emotional and physical pain, they perpetuate each other like two cogs in a machine. As such, feeling ignored impacts both physical and mental health. The overwhelming negative emotions (self-doubt, confusion, worry, lack of control, feeling rejected…) trigger the physiological stress responses of decreased sleep, headaches, increased heart rate and nausea. As stress levels increase, the ability to focus and be productive decreases.
Thus, the cycle continues.
Despite our evolutionary survival techniques, feeling rejected and ignored still hurts. We have more methods at our fingertips of connecting with and interacting with others such as email, text, networking groups, social media etc…all of which create counter methods by which to feel ignored.
In this post ‘Do You Need to Call Ghostbusters‘ I focus on one which has affected us all, the antisocial behaviour of ghosting. Specifically, the real reasons why candidates ghost.
Samantha Lynne
I help business owners & hiring managers streamline candidate interviews to make right-first-time hires for the long-term.