The Sensitivity Spectrum: Orchids, Tulips & Dandelions

Today I am talking about how sensitivity is a spectrum or a continuum, rather than something we have or we don’t have. I will share about the flower metaphor, and how researchers of sensitivity currently group people into 3 categories according to their level of environmental sensitivity: low, medium and high. And I will share some of the brain differences seen in those who fall into the higher levels of sensitivity.

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It has been well researched and confirmed that some people are more sensitive to their environments than others - something that we now call environmental sensitivity - and that this sensitivity is an innate temperament, meaning that it’s something we are born with that stays with us and it does have a genetic component. For a while, it was thought that there were basically two groups: highly sensitive people and non highly sensitive people.

In Sweden, they call these two groups “orchids” or orkidbarne (meaning sensitive child in Swedish) and “dandelions” or maskrosbarn (meaning dandelion child), because sensitive people tend to be more delicate like orchids and need the right environment to thrive, and people without high sensitivity are more robust like dandelions and can thrive in most circumstances. It has been shown that highly sensitive people are influenced more by either a positive environment or a negative environment, than those who are less sensitive.

However, research shows that sensitivity is more of a spectrum rather than two distinct groups.

In 2005, two researchers of sensitivity borrowed the Swedish flower metaphor and expanded it to three groups encompassing orchids (highly sensitive people), which make up about 30% of the population, tulips (those along the middle of the spectrum which make up about 40%, and dandelions (those who are least sensitive on the spectrum, which make up about 30%.

So, basically the concept of sensitivity is not one of either you are or you aren’t, but there are differences that show up in the population that can roughly place people into three areas: high, medium or low sensitivity.

It’s interesting to note that scientists have observed that there are differences in the brain activity as we move along the spectrum, for example those on the high end of the spectrum: they show greater activity in the mirror neurons, which is the area responsible for empathy, in the insula, which governs our awareness, and the amygdala which is our fight or flight center. We also see more activity in areas associated with creativity and emotional vividness, and it seems that our brains respond differently to dopamine, which is why we are less drawn to stimulating experiences.

None of this is to say that one type of person is better than another - we all have our strengths and weaknesses. And this podcast is all about celebrating sensitivity, so that’s the part of population that I’m focusing on.

So, to wrap things up - there are differences in the way that people experience life and their environment - this is what we have called a person’s environmental sensitivity. Currently, we consider people to usually fall into 3 different areas along a continuum or spectrum of sensitivity - high, medium or low, and these are sometimes called orchids, tulips and dandelions.

If you’re curious to find out which flower you represent, you can take my quiz here.