All you nail bitters reading this, listen up: biting your nails is not only a habit that annoys your mom, it’s actually a sign of a personality trait.
Despite what seems to be general belief, nail-biting is not a necessary a nervous habit. A recent study that has researched this common habit in depth has revealed some pretty interesting information about those who have it.
As surprising as it may sound, the study published in the March 2015 issue of Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry says that nail bitters are actually perfectionists – which is kind of ironic considering you would expect a perfectionist to also have perfectly polished nails.
According to the same study, those who regularly bite their nails aren’t doing so because a certain situation makes them feel anxious. It’s because they are prone to feeling frustrated when something they do is not perfect in their acceptance of the word, or when they fail to reach a goal. Nail biting is their way of dealing with that build-in frustration.
The research was conducted on 48 participants.