The Science of Fidgeting

Children and adults alike share an often unconscious need to fiddle and fidget, and the market for toys and gadgets to tackle these temptations seems to have exploded in recent years.

But the science behind exactly what causes our drive to distraction remains unclear.

In an article with The Conversation, Harriet Dempsey-Jones, a postdoctoral researcher in clinical neurosciences from the University of Oxford, suggests some possible explanations.

And she also warns that using these types of toys may give off the wrong impression to people we might be talking to while playing with them. 

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Hand-held toys known as fidget spinners, marketed as stress relievers, have become so popular and distracting in classrooms that they are now being banned in many schools.

And it’s not just kids who like to fidget.

Look around your office and you will probably see people bouncing their legs up and down, turning pens over and over in their hands, chewing on things, sucking on their lower lips and pulling bits of their beard out, seemingly completely unconsciously.

But why do we fidget, and why do some people do it more than others?

And if it really helps to relieve stress, does that mean we should all embrace it?

These are actually rather difficult questions to answer, as there appear to be various definitions of what fidgeting is and why it happens.

However, there are some interesting, if unexpected, theories.

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