Stress manifests in many different ways within people. Some people experience sweaty palms and an upset stomach, and others completely shut down and just feel numb. However, scientists have discovered a common daily habit that most people engage in when they’re feeling overwhelmed, specifically at work.
Researchers from the University of Houston and Virginia Tech analyzed nearly 170 hours of video recordings from 10 academic researchers working in their offices over four days. Based on their findings, they determined that most stressed-out employees often resort to a specific gesture, which is usually a reliable indicator that they’re experiencing mental stress.
Researchers found that stressed-out workers are much more likely to mindlessly touch their faces while they are on the job.
Researchers used AI to track every face-to-face interaction, combined with imaging that detected stress-related perspiration. The study found something interesting: people who frequently touched their chin, cheeks, and nose showed significantly higher levels of stress.
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The chin, nose, and forehead form what’s called the “T-zone.” Researchers noted that it’s an area of the face that’s densely packed with nerve endings. When stress is elevated, humans instinctively touch these nerve-riddled areas because they are highly sensitive and provide comfort. Most of the time, it’s done completely mindlessly.
Touching multiple areas of the lower face at once showed the strongest association with stress.
“Lower-face self-touch is a solid indicator of sympathetic overactivity, which is a proxy of mental stress,” the researchers wrote in their paper. While researchers were also able to look at the facial expressions of the participants, they didn’t provide much value for stress.
Participants displayed predominantly negative emotions (50% of the time), neutral expressions (20%), and what appeared as sadness or the sober look people assume when concentrating (20%). Happiness appeared rarely (4%). There were also individual differences among participants in how often they touched their faces.
Two participants touched their faces much more frequently than others, falling into the “high-touch” category identified in earlier psychological studies. In contrast, one participant rarely touched her face at all, suggesting individual differences in self-soothing strategies during stress-inducing work. Basically, we are all uniquely individual in how often and how we touch our faces when stressed, even though most of us engage in the practice.
A 2022 study even found that preventing people who normally touch their faces frequently from doing so impaired their memory performance and altered their brain activity patterns.
Most employees are facing some kind of burnout at work.
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Research from Moodle, a learning management system, found that at least 66% of American employees experienced some form of burnout in 2025. Data revealed that younger generations are facing significantly higher rates of burnout, with 81% of 18- to 24-year-olds and 83% of 25- to 34-year-olds reporting burnout, compared to just 49% of those aged 55 and older.
When asked about the reasons they were experiencing stress, 24% admitted that it was because they have more work to complete than time to do it, another 24% said they don’t have enough resources or the right tools to do their job properly, while 20% said the state of the economy was to blame. In a nutshell, people are feeling overworked and simultaneously afraid of the financial instability that is so prevalent, thanks to our current cost of living and job market.
It’s not just employed people who are facing these high levels of stress, either. In a study from the American Psychological Association, job insecurity is having a significant impact on a majority of U.S. workers’ (54%) stress levels. How could it not? The job market is a disaster, and the unemployment numbers keep growing.
Think you are immune to this stress. Try paying more attention to how often your hand drifts to your face. Perhaps you hold your chin while staring at your computer screen or simply tap your upper lip while thinking. Yeah, those gestures are exactly what these researchers are talking about.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.