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"Admit it: At times, you&amp;#x27;ve wondered what people think of you. Maybe you&amp;#x27;ve poked around on Facebook to see what people are saying about you. Maybe you&amp;#x27;ve worried that your pals are gossiping about you behind your back. Guess what? They might be, but being paranoid about it sort of backfires say experts. The takeaway from a new study boils down to this: If you think everyone hates you, everyone will hate you. In short, say researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology, the more concerned you are about whether people are talking about you behind your back or gossiping about you, the more paranoid you&amp;#x27;re likely to feel. Worse: The more paranoid you are, they say, the more people pick up on it and the more unlikable you become. &amp;amp;#8220;What we found was that students who were higher in their motivation [to seek out people engaging in harm against them] were more rejected by their group,&amp;amp;#8221; Marr explains. &amp;amp;#8220;What we are seeing is that even though this is a motivation that someone has, others in their group are aware of it and they can tell who is like that and it makes them want to exclude that person.&amp;amp;#8221; Bottomline: It&amp;#x27;s common sense, of course, but the best practice is to simply accept that people may be talking about you, but to let it go. I learned a long time ago that focusing on what we can control (ourselves) rather than what we can&amp;#x27;t control (other people) makes for a much happier life. Try it! Share: At the moment do you feel ultra concerned about what others are thinking/saying about you? More reading: *Why believing in luck may not be so great for your health... *Good news for shy girls! *The totally bizarre way to boost your mood (that I kind of want to try)... Photo: Thinkstock"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/blogs/vitamin-g/2012/09/mental-health-minute-want-peop>