Turning down party invitations can be good for your mental health.
Experts at West Virginia University have conducted a survey that discovered that over three-quarters of people have accepted an invitation to something they didn’t want to go to – because they were worried about the consequences of not attending.
This led to feelings of anxiety, stress and burnout – which can all easily be avoided by simply turning down the invitation as the team determined that friends and relatives do not care about rejections as much as imagined.
Julian Givi, the lead author of the study, said: “I was once invited to an event that I absolutely did not want to attend, but I attended anyway because I was nervous that the person who invited me would be upset if I did not – and that appears to be a common experience.
“Our research shows, however, that the negative ramifications of saying no are much less severe than we expect.”
