Rejection puts brakes on our heart

Washington - Feeling of social rejection not only dash our hopes but also triggers a drop in heart rate, a new study has revealed.

Researchers from the University of Amsterdam wanted to explore the physiological impact of hurt feelings. They asked 27 student volunteers (18 female, 9 male, ages 18 to 25) to submit  photos of themselves.

The students were told this was for a study on first impressions but this was just to simulate the conditions for the real experiment. Later, the students were hooked up to a heart rate  monitor and shown images of other students whom they believed had seen their photos.

They were asked to guess whether the other student liked them or not -- and overall they were fairly optimistic (on average, they believed they would be liked 57 percent of the time). 

When the volunteers anticipated a positive outcome, but instead were rejected (actually a computer generated response), heart rate dropped by 10 percent.

A slight drop in heart rate would probably have no health consequence -- but a larger drop might cause lightheadedness, nausea, sweating and even fainting. Someone with underlying heart  problems could be prone to a more severe reaction.