At home, you are more “team comfort” (with big socks and sweat shirt) or the type to send everything back, very comfortable with your nudity? The answer, according to a study conducted in the United States, may well teach you a little more about yourself. (Or change your gaze on this neighbor a little too natural for your taste).
When nudity meets psychology
Researchers at Rochester University have indeed analyzed data of more than 700 Americans collected in the 1990s. These participants had answered questionnaires on their daily behavior and personality traits. By crossing information, scientists have observed that those who declared to lounge at home without clothes more than 15 times a year also displayed signs of superior intelligence.
Please note, no Qi test in this survey. Researchers have rather evaluated intelligence through features such as intellectual curiosity, creativity or openness to new experiences.
Non-compliance would go hand in hand with a free spirit
Why this correlation? According to the Rochester team, the intellect is often linked to non-compliance. In other words, the most intelligent people would feel less constrained by social standards. Walking naked at home would therefore not be a simple whim, but a way – conscious or not – to challenge decorum and to affirm a certain freedom of mind.
But other behaviors also evoked this small superiority. Among the behaviors also associated with high intelligence figured other data: playing an instrument, producing artistic works, speaking several languages … But also, more surprising, swearing in front of other people, smoking cannabis or practicing sport shooting (let’s not forget that the study is carried out in the United States), an activity deemed to be demanding in the mental and emotional level.
Small precision: the data came only from (naked) inhabitants of Oregon, which limits the universal scope of the study. Researchers would like to reply the experience in other cultural contexts to check if the trend is confirmed elsewhere.
Live naked, the key to happiness?
This is not the first time that nudity has been studied as a positive data. According to another study, Eve’s outfit would simply be linked … to happiness. A team from the University of London studied 850 British and found that the followers of naturism displayed a better body image and greater life satisfaction.
In naturist events, the researchers even observed immediate improvements in self -esteem and mood after the participants stood naked. Results that seem to confirm what naturists have been repeating for a long time: nudity, far from being a taboo, could be a key to psychological well-being. At least one way to get rid of the superfluous, concretely speaking.
Knowing that half of French people tend to walk naked at home, should we conclude that we are very happy and smart?