The habit that says you're a perfectionist

Pop singer Rihanna has been spotted biting her nails. Photo / Getty

Biting your nails or pulling at your hair has long been thought to be a sign of nervousness and anxiety.

But new research has found that the frowned-upon habit could in fact be a sign of perfectionism.

Experts also found that the behaviour was not a sign of anxiety.

In tests, participants were more likely to start nibbling when frustrated and bored - both feelings commonly associated with perfectionists.

The so-called body-focused repetitive behaviours (BFRB) included nail-biting, hair-pulling and skin-picking.

"We believe that individuals with these repetitive behaviours maybe perfectionistic, meaning that they are unable to relax and to perform tasks at a 'normal' pace," said author Professor Kieron O'Connor from the University of Montreal.

"They are therefore prone to frustration, impatience, and dissatisfaction when they do not reach their goals.

"They also experience greater levels of boredom."

He said there is a strong "cognitive component" to this style of action typically accompanied by perfectionist beliefs relating to how organised a person is.

"Although these behaviours can induce important distress, they also seem to satisfy an urge and deliver some form of reward," said principal investigator Kieron O'Connor.

Professor O'Connor and his colleagues studied 48 participants - half suffered from repetitive behaviours and the other half didn't, and acted as a control group.

Each participant took part in four sessions designed to cause either feelings of stress, relaxation, frustration, or boredom.

The stress session involved watching a video of a plane crash, while the video in the relaxation section showed waves on a beach.

Frustration was triggered by asking the participants to complete a task that was supposedly easy and quick, but wasn't.

Boredom was induced by leaving the participant alone in a room for six minutes.

Individuals with a history of repetitive behaviours reported a greater urge to engage in these behaviours than those in the control group during the boredom and frustration sections, but not in the relaxation situation.

'These results partially support our hypothesis in that participants were more likely to engage in repetitive behaviours when they felt bored, frustrated, and dissatisfied than when they felt relaxed.

"Moreover, they do engage in these behaviours when they are under stress. This means that condition is not simply due to 'nervous' habits," added study author Sarah Roberts.

"The findings suggest that individuals suffering from [these] behaviours could benefit from treatments designed to reduce frustration and boredom and to modify perfectionist beliefs."

The findings were published in the Journal of Behaviour Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry.

Repetitive behaviours explained

Hair-pulling:

Using fingers to remove hair from the head or other body part; twirling feeling and touching hair for the sole purpose of touching hair.

Adjusting hair such as tucking strands behind the ears or moving hair out of face is not considered HP.

Skin-picking:

Using the fingers or nails to remove skin or scabs from the body; focused intensive or interactive scratching or rubbing skin on any part of the body. Scratching or rubbing skin over clothes is not considered SP.

Nail-biting:

Insertion of fingers or part of finger into the mouth or full contact between tips of fingers and mouth lips or teeth; visually examining nails and using the fingers on the same hand or the opposite hand to touch rub or pick at the nails or the skin around the nails. Resting the face in the hand with only the palm or knuckles touching the mouth is not considered NB.

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- Daily Mail