If you’ve ever attended a tense sports game or been nervous about giving a presentation at work, chances are you’ll almost certainly have tried biting your fingernails.
It’s a habit that is observed in people of all ages and to help shed some light on the reasons why people take comfort in chomping away on their nails, The Focus spoke with Silja Litvin, a psychologist and founder of the mental health platform PsycApps.
The psychological reasons why people bite their nails
Even though research has shown that thousands of bacteria live under our fingernails, millions of people from around the world haven’t been deterred from engaging in this curious habit.
According to Silja Litvin, who is an Honorary Research Assistant at University College London, the roots of nail biting – also known as onychophagia – are in several psychological and neurological factors.
As any sports fan will attest to, biting nails is one method that people have developed to cope with stress and anxiety as it “provides a sense of control in challenging situations,” says the psychologist.
“Nail biting often serves as a coping mechanism for individuals experiencing stress, anxiety, or boredom,” explains Litvin. “The repetitive action provides a temporary distraction and may help alleviate tension.”
On top of that, once a person starts biting their fingernails – a habit usually developed during childhood – it’s incredibly difficult to stop.
“Nail biting can become ingrained as a habit over time, especially if initiated during childhood,” says the psychologist. “It may persist into adulthood as a subconscious response to various stimuli.”
Biting nails can also be a result of perfectionism and obsessive-compulsive traits explains Litvin as it can serve as “a manifestation of [a person’s] need for control or as a response to intrusive thoughts.”
There is also the satisfaction that people get from biting their nails as “the tactile sensation of biting nails may offer sensory satisfaction for some individuals,” explains Silja.
Why it’s so hard to stop biting your nails
Biting one’s fingernails can also lead to certain activity in the brain according to Litvin who explains the neurological reasons why the habit is so hard to shake.
The ‘crunching’ sensation of biting fingernails is one of the biggest reasons why people maintain the habit as it can “trigger the release of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, which are associated with pleasure and reward,” says the psychologist. “This reinforces the behavior, making it more likely to recur.”
“The repetitive motion of nail biting stimulates the brain’s reward pathway, particularly the nucleus accumbens,” continues Silja. “This activation reinforces the behavior, making it difficult to break the habit.”
As touched upon earlier, the habit of biting nails is one that is commonly developed during childhood. This makes shaking the habit so difficult according to Litvin who says, “Habitual behaviors, including nail biting, become encoded in neural circuits through a process called synaptic plasticity. Over time, these neural pathways strengthen, making the behavior more automatic and difficult to suppress.”
