Let me start by admitting that I never planned to pursue an academic career in the first place. As a result, I don’t have a typical university professor background. Whilst growing up in Switzerland, music was my main passion. I played various instruments and dreamt of touring the world as a bass guitarist. And in order to fund my music studies after completing high school, I ended up training and working on the side as a lab technician in analytical chemistry. But after having toured for a few years as a professional musician, I realized that what brought me even more alive were deep conversations with others about things that really mattered—one of the hints I saw later of my own sensitivity. Consequently, this insight led me to study psychology with the aspiration of becoming a psychotherapist.
The Path to Differential Susceptibility
Fast forward a few years and with an BSc and MSc under my belt from the University of Basel (Switzerland), I moved to London (United Kingdom), to work towards a PhD under the guidance of Prof Jay Belsky, a renowned developmental psychologist. In our first meeting, Jay introduced me to his intriguing idea of differential susceptibility. This theory suggests that children differ in how strongly their development is shaped by their environment, with more “susceptible” children being more influenced by both negative and positive environmental exposures. Although a fairly simple idea, this made a lot more intuitive sense to me than the traditional perspective taught in my psychology courses which focused exclusively on the negative impact of early adversity.
Unsurprisingly, differential susceptibility became the focus of my doctoral work. In my early work with Jay, we explored infant temperament and genes as indicators of heightened susceptibility to parenting and childcare. As the theory predicted, we found that certain temperament traits or genes were associated with an increased vulnerability to the negative effects of harsh or neglectful care but also a heightened responsiveness to warm and supportive parenting and childcare.
Along Came Sensory Processing Sensitivity
In early 2008, I reached out to Dr. Elaine Aron, with a hunch that her work on sensory processing sensitivity may have much in common with the theory of differential susceptibility. In fact, in my first email to Elaine (I just checked my archive) I wondered whether people characterized by high sensory processing sensitivity might be those who are particularly susceptible to both negative and positive environmental influences. After this initial exchange we stayed in touch, updating each other on our respective research and thoughts on sensitivity and susceptibility.
After I completed my PhD, I ran a study in a secondary school in East London evaluating an intervention aimed at promoting psychological resilience in children. I was particularly interested in finding out whether highly sensitive students would benefit more from the programme. At that time, we didn’t have a sensitivity questionnaire tailored specifically for children. So, together with Elaine and others, we developed and tested what would be known as the Highly Sensitive Child scale. And indeed, we found that sensitive children did benefit more from the intervention than less sensitive children.
This study of high sensitivity was the beginning of a fruitful collaboration with the Arons and branched out into other joint research projects, especially regarding the measurement of sensitivity in children and adults. One important finding was that people tend to fall into one of three sensitivity groups: about 30% of the population are highly sensitive, another 30% are relatively low in sensitivity, and the remaining 40% are somewhere in between. These groups are sometimes referred to as orchids, dandelions, and tulips.
The Value of an Umbrella—the Concept of Environmental Sensitivity
As my research into sensitivity advanced, it became clear to me that what the three leading theories on sensitivity (sensory processing sensitivity by Elaine and Art Aron, differential susceptibility by Jay Belsky, and biological sensitivity to context by Tom Boyce and Bruce Ellis) have in common is that all three suggest that some people are especially strongly affected by environmental influences. In order to facilitate research across these related yet different concepts, I integrated the three theories into the framework of environmental sensitivity. Importantly, environmental sensitivity doesn’t replace the three long-standing theories of sensitivity, but instead seeks to combine different aspects of the theories to provide a broader and more comprehensive perspective.
Research on sensitivity has come a long way since my early days as a PhD student, with a growing number of researchers exploring the different aspects of sensitivity today. As a result, we have much more evidence-based knowledge and this continues to grow year-on-year. In order to make this valuable body of research more easily accessible to the general public, we launched a researcher-led website in 2020: www.sensitivityresearch.com. Through this website, we provide reliable information and resources on sensitivity, share recent research findings, and offer the same self-tests online that we also use for our academic research (all for free). It is a really exciting time for all who are interested in sensitivity and there is a lot more we can learn about this important trait.
What About Me? Yes, Also Highly Sensitive
I realize that sensitivity probably always played an important role in my life even though I didn’t have the right language to describe it until I began to research it myself. Early on in the research, I thought I was probably in the middle group, a tulip, because like many men, especially those with supportive childhoods, I was not really having problems with my sensitivity. Sure I could get stressed and overstimulated, but I figured everyone did.
I see now, however, that I am more likely a healthy and fortunate orchid. As a child, my sensitivity certainly contributed to the intense connection I experienced with music. At the same time, I also deeply enjoyed analysing and thinking through complex issues. Indeed, sensitivity may account for my unusual path that includes analytical chemistry, music, psychology, and finally an academic career. It could be the secret thread that weaves all of these rather different experiences together. Looking back through the eyes of a developmental psychologist, I’m particularly grateful that my parents provided an environment that allowed me to embrace my high sensitivity and run with it wherever it would take me. According to the theory of differential susceptibility, it may be exactly my heightened sensitivity that enabled me to benefit so much from the positive aspects of my childhood environment and to acquire the creativity, confidence, and resilience that are required for the often challenging life as a university professor.
An Amazing Future for Research on HSPs
As I write, we have various projects on sensitivity under way, including one on sensitive children in primary school and a new project on HSPs and their experience of psychotherapy. There are still so many more avenues to be explored in detail, such as the genetic and neurological bases of sensitivity or the development of sensitivity across the life course. Recently, we started a monthly webinar for doctoral students from all over the world working on the topic of sensitivity, with the aim of exchanging ideas and promoting collaboration cross-culturally. Let’s see what comes next as this exciting journey continues!
Many thanks for the good article. I am very interested in a new project on HSPs and their experience of psychotherapy, could you share where to find more information, please?
I wonder what we had before this last decades (!) of beginning of understanding and investigating sensitivity?
Was the theory that we are all machines? Driven by animal instincts? There was no spiritual dimension called sensitivity?
What a terrible mistake. And what happened with HSP people that came under mental health care? How were emotional people at all treated?
I didn’t discover my HSP trait until I was 65 years old. I had a non-supportive upbringing bordering on emotional abuse. As a result, I always thought of myself as crazy, wrong or stupid. Thank goodness I found Jacqueline Strickland and her HSP retreats. I have been to 2. Well, what a realization! There are others like me! Acknowledging this trait has enabled me to be authentic in my life and enjoy “being myself”. The rest of my life will be lived as a sensitive whose empathy and creativity are emerging. Thank you, Doctor Aron and other teachers for studying this trait and making it OK for me to be the Highly sensitive human being I am!
I love remembering you coming alive with insight, confidence and creativity at the two HSP Gathering Retreats you attended: Santa Barbara & Estes Park, Colorado… fondly, Jacquelyn
I’m 64 and thinking of seriously looking into HSP theory. My 1st instinct was how much could it help at this late date? Thanks for the inspiration!
This is amazing and wonderful research and so informative. As a child, I lost my mother at 12, and had a tumultuous relationship with my father who referred to me as
“Miss Sensitivity”, therefore being sensitive was a bad thing for 65 years of my life. Being bullied by your immediate family for being “different” makes life very hard.
Thank God I found out about HSP and EDMR to process years of emotional abuse.
Love this information and grateful your here!
Hello Dr, Pleuss,
I have a PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and work for a major pharmaceutical chemistry.
I have recently learnt that I am a HSP and have struggled managing my sensitivity.
Is there a connection between being a HSP and a bipolar disorder ? The online literature is very scarce and would like to seek your perspective.
Regards
Excellent post. I’ve been following this work for years and have always been curious to hear more about how the three teams came across each other after separately exploring sensitivity. Fabulous synchronicity – the Darwin & Wallace scenario of modern times! Lots of interesting research questions, I’d particularly love to see Sensitivity thrown in as a moderator to the original ACE research, also lots of questions around autoimmunity, addiction, allergies, asthma, ADHD, ASD. Exciting times and thanks for all your work.
I found this useful and enlightening. I fear there has to be a category that separates the 30% hsp. In terms of sensitivity I stand alone, but obviously there must be others. I am an hsp who was born to parents who neglected me. My mother was emotionally ,verbally and physically abusive toward me. On an ongoingoing basis until her death at 77.
I somehow survived my childhood but never had self esteem to this day. I was also born with umbilical tetanus and was not expected to survive it. For the the first 5 months of my life I was in an incubator with tubes through my head and wherever they could find a spot to prod me. I apparently winced in agony whenever I was handled.
I am now 70 and I experience life with pain and positivity thanks to the healing I received from a therapist who took me on pro bono and treated me for 5 years. I was able to move forward eventually. I just can’t accept that 30% of people are like me.
Interesting work. Well done. The great taboo in the HSP research field is in my opinion (I am trained in child and family developmental psychology and neuroscience) , that although not all HSPs recall it a difficult, chaotic home environment where the child has to second guess temperamental, inconsistant or unreliable caregivers to gain any feeling of SAFETY (our first goal in life, for life) as their brains begin to wire and form patterns for life (personality- this starts in the womb), has never been researched. Yes there is a practical difficulty in doing so because of the under 4 amnesia when the brain isnt yet equipped to remember, but psychoanalytic thinking and in particular attachment theory (Ainsley et al) have overcome that as attachment patterns remain in adulthood telling us what the person’s parenting was like. I and a group of friends, all HSPs agree that our early experiences of finding safety wired us to be HSPs.
Tags: <
There is no doubt in my mind that there are
degrees of HSP. I have been watching
myself for years. My extreme “HSP status” has given me untold joy – but on the downside, it has also limited my professional and personal success.
Please tell me where I can go to read the results of the latest research in this area.
I would, without doubt, be an excellent candidate for research in this area.
Here is an abstract thought –
could the HSP condition be related to an individual having, or one of their an ancestors having, extreme life or death emotions – brought on by trauma?
Deborah Viviani
757-816-6116
Thank you, Michael. I’m so glad you posted this article, Elaine. I looked up http://www.sensitivityresearch.com, and I’ll be looking into it soon.
I’m planning to teach HSPs mindfulness meditation and also form an HSP peer support group in the western suburbs of Chicago where I live. These will all be in person, especially since I (and probably others) are sick of everything being online.
I’m 76 y.o., and I had 33 years of very severe depression/anxiety. The depression disappeared in 2004 after I attended a Jon Kabat-Zinn workshop which made me serious about starting a daily longer meditation practice (then 45 min./day, now 30 minutes). I also switched to an organic whole food diet. It’s amazing what proper self-care can do for HSPs.
I come from a highly sensitive family. I have highly sensitive children and was recently diagnosed bipolar. Do you know if there are any connections between HSP and bipolar? Thank you
A family of famed musicians lol
Like many others, I did not have any understanding of high sensitivity until much later in my life. After reading Elaine’s book I am pretty sure I am highly sensitive. So I want to express my appreciation for this work and the immense benefit I received by learning of it. One thing I’ve noticed especially with the current social climate due to the pandemic creating fewer opportunities for live, in-person connections is that I have a very ambivalent relationship with spending time on the computer. I work in a field where long hours spent on the computer are required & considered normal but I definitely struggle with this and find my ability to think clearly and my physical and psychological health become stressed when I spend long hours at the computer. Has any research been done in this specific area in relation to HSPs having higher sensitivity to the negative effects associated with long periods of time on electronic devices? I would be very interested in learning about this if so. And I would suggest it as a potential area to explore, if not. Thank you.
Thank you for a very informative article.
I’ve been pondering sensitive people and psychotherapy for a while, after having mixed experiences myself and also being on various chat forums and hearing about others who’ve had not so good experiences.
It seems HSPs might have a negative experience if the therapist is a dandelion for instance. Someone who isn’t aware of how much some of us HSPs are able to pick up of their energy, micro expressions and body language, with the conclusion being that you as a patient must be imagining things or being delusional or showing some sign of mental issue if you react to or comment upon things they are convinced they didn’t communicate in any perceivable way.
In addition some don’t seem to have good insight into themselves, and might be unaware of what they are feeling and thinking and then also communicating, so again the conclusion must be that you as a patient must have some sort of issue, causing you to react the way you are doing.
The advice they give might also not always be good advice for an HSP.
And if high sensitivity isn’t recognised as such, there seems to be a tendency to get a diagnosis instead. So a young person that I know as highly sensitive in a noisy school environment with a teacher excuding bad energy is diagnosed with ADD as they are having trouble concentrating…
OCD and AD(HD) seem to be popular diagnosis for HSPs who might just be an HSP in a difficult environment for HSPs.
The third thing that I’ve seen is that as HSPs are so much more susceptible, and might have issues that for a tulip or dandelion would require a severly destructive upbringing the HSP’s family might be suspected of being much worse than they actually are.
I wish someone would also look into these aspects more. I know Elaine already have written a little bit about it, but I would love for there to be more research.
This is exceptionally close to my heart – how highly sensitive people and empaths can harness their gifts as sustainable superpowers (and why they are critical to humanity’s ecosystem) and it didn’t take long into the article for me to realise how much my own work resonates with yours. Thank you for sharing this!