Heart Rate Study Confirms Joe Jonas Taking 7 Min to Parallel Park Was Probably Super Stressful for Him
This week, a TikToker posted a now-viral clip of celeb heartthrob Joe Jonas attempting to parallel park his G-Wagon in NYC. The video quickly racked up 21.5 million views. Jonas took it all in stride. “And I saw you once and not help once,” he commented.
Mercedes-Benz, Jeep, and other brands hopped into the thread, too.
Jonas followed up on the incident with funny bits on his own social media. But in response to the whole thing, Autotrader stepped in with its results from a recent driver study.
It wanted to figure out which parts of driving make motorists most anxious. Turns out, the heartthrob was more than likely experiencing a heavy heart throb himself: It’s parallel parking.
You can cruise at 75 mph without breaking a sweat, yet a tight street space can turn your pulse into a drum solo
According to new data from Autotrader’s Parking Problem Report, Joe Jonas’s stress levels were probably doing jumping jacks the whole time.
Researchers wanted to measure what parking anxiety actually looks like in the body. They strapped heart-rate monitors on 20 volunteers and had them complete three everyday driving tasks: a public parallel park, a forward park, and a reverse park.
They also surveyed more than 1,200 drivers about their habits, fears, and coping strategies.
Parallel parking came out as the undisputed champion of stress
Participants saw their heart rate climb an average of 57% during the attempt.
The lowest spike hit 22%. The highest shot up 84%, which seems like enough of a leap to read “full panic mode.”
Men reported feeling the pressure slightly more than women. Male drivers jumped about 58%. Female drivers climbed around 56%. Well done, ladies.
Parallel parking rattles people, even those who seem calm
That context makes Joe Jonas’s parallel parking saga feel perfectly human, even for someone who performs for massive crowds. This year alone, the brothers put on around 79 shows, many of which were sold-out stadiums with 50,000 to 60,000 fans attending.