This isn't surprising, since stress, and its associated hormonal effects, is detrimental to one's health.

It struck me that fear or dislike of novelty is not the same as shyness.

You could crave novelty in, lets say, computer games, yet dread meeting strangers.

Likewise, an outgoing, sociable person could nevertheless feel comfortable only while sticking to his routine in the same home or office year after year.

An excellent point, but a difficult one to test, since the researchers deemed a fear of novelty the "mouse equivalent" of human shyness. I'm not sure how easy it would be to establish a statistical correlation between the two.