[Week 12] High growth is giving the self-confidence. Short the suspicion and paranoia.

Noticing world from the position of several dozen centimeters lower makes people with paranoid tendencies feel threatened.

In the Guardian we can read about an interesting experiment. British scientists were studying how a person's growth affects on noticing the world among people with paranoid tendencies.To do this they conducted survey on a group of 60 women - they were put helmets which „send” them to virtual reality in which they were traveling by underground.

During one travel the perspective was changed so that the person on which they were doing research was shorter for a 30 cm. After such travel there were researched on degree of about paranoid feelings.

It appeared that when we perceive world from 30cm lower , it changes our self esteem and we become to feel threatened. Daniel Freeman , professor of „A person who is situated lower that usual is feeling worse than others, which leads to perceiving hostility , which doesn't really exist.” says Daniel Freeman,professor of clinical psychology, who did these surveys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoUfiDaGX6k

There's no need to jump to conclusions. 'It doesn't matter that shorter people have paranoid tendencies- the research shows only what happens to a person whose growth is shortened- says the author of a research. It may help scientist to help people with such tendencies.

In our culture a growth is a virtue. Most man asked for their growth adds a few centimeters to their real growth. Persons who are taller are perceived as more attractive , self estimated and has more leadership advantages. Whereas short people are neglected or even to disregarded. Nothing to be surprised about- the growth affects on our life and relations with other people. Even language reflects that tendency, for example- to look down on somebody.
Willem-Paul Brinkman, who uses virtual reality to heal people with psychic disturbances on University of Delf in Denmark, says that this research confirms other researches made thanks to virtual reality- adding somebody’s avatar a few centimeters makes him or her more confident. Brinkman adds that such research are valuable because they helps to assess patient's mental state systematically, just after an experiment, whereas psychology and psychiatry are based largely on patent's memories.

1. Do you agree with relation, the higher growth the stronger self-confidence?Maybe you know some examples against this statement?
2. Do you know some interesting examples confirming this theory?
3. Do you think that it alway works like that : highest growth is giving the self-confidence, and low the suspicion and the paranoia?Would you choose shorter or taller avatar? Maybe one-time experience in virtual reality can't show real feelings-what do you think?