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Sensitivity

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

  • 68 Accesses

Synonyms

Affectability; Awareness; Empathy; Feeling; Impressionability; Nervousness; Reactivity; Understanding

Definition

Sensitivity is the level a person or group detects and reacts to a stimulus.

Introduction

Stimuli have become an ever-encroaching aspect of the “connected” human’s life. A world swimming in oceans of information, whether paper or electric, is rarely at a loss for a stimulus to perceive and react to; the unprecedented volume of accessible information can be a stimulus in and of itself. Lee et al. indicated that suffering psychologically from the stress of overwhelming information and stimulation can be serious and lasting (2016). Painting the volume of information and ease of connection in a negative light fails to acknowledge the benefits of current accessibility. Information access should lead to greater awareness and understanding; however, as Sharot (2017) revealed, often humans just entrench themselves further into the beliefs they had originally, ultimately...

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References

  • Cacioppo, J., & Cacioppo, S. (2014). Social relationships and health: The toxic effects of perceived social isolation. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 8(2), 58–72.

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  • Lee, A., Son, S., & Kim, K. M. (2016). Information and communication technology overload and social networking service fatigue: A stress perspective. Computers in Human Behavior, 55, 51–61.

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  • Ocal, A., & Altmok, A. (2016). Developing social sensitivity with service-learning. Social Indicators Research, 129, 61–75.

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  • Schlösser, T., Berger, S., & Fetchenhauer, D. (2018). Justice sensitivity and cooperation dynamics in repeated public good games. Social Justice Research, 31, 1–22.

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  • Sharot, T. (2017). Influential mind. New York: Henry Holt.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, OK, USA

    Kelsey Gaskins & Steven M. Dunn

Authors
  1. Kelsey Gaskins
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  2. Steven M. Dunn
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Steven M. Dunn .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Universität zu Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany

    John F. Rauthmann

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© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

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Gaskins, K., Dunn, S.M. (2019). Sensitivity. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1907-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1907-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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