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Cited by 164Stress Responses and CortisolHeart Rate Variability and Autonomic ControlAnxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes

A General Enhancement of Autonomic and Cortisol Responses During Social Evaluative Threat

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Bosch, Jos A., de Geus, Eco J. C., Carroll, Douglas, Goedhart, Annebet D., Anane, Leila A., Veldhuizen van Zanten, Jet J., Helmerhorst, Eva J., Edwards, Kate M.·2009·Psychosomatic Medicine
DOI 10.1097/psy.0b013e3181baef05PMC PMC4414334
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Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To examine the Social Self Preservation Theory, which predicts that stressors involving social evaluative threat (SET) characteristically activate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. The idea that distinct psychosocial factors may underlie specific patterns of neuroendocrine stress responses has been a topic of recurrent debate. METHODS: Sixty-one healthy university students (n = 31 females) performed a challenging speech task in one of three conditions that aimed to impose increasing levels of SET: performing the task alone (no social evaluation), with one evaluating observer, or with four evaluating observers. Indices of sympathetic (preejection period) and parasympathetic (heart rate variability) cardiac drive were obtained by impedance- and electrocardiography. Salivary cortisol was used to index HPA activity. Questionnaires assessed affective responses. RESULTS: Affective responses (shame/embarrassment, anxiety, negative affect, and self-esteem), cortisol, heart rate, sympathetic and parasympathetic activation all differentiated evaluative from nonevaluative task conditions (p < .001). The largest effect sizes were observed for cardiac autonomic responses. Physiological reactivity increased in parallel with increasing audience size (p < .001). An increase in cortisol was predicted by sympathetic activation during the task (p < .001), but not by affective responses. CONCLUSION: It would seem that SET determines the magnitude, rather than the pattern, of physiological activation. This potential to perturb broadly multiple physiological systems may help explain why social stress has been associated with a range of health outcomes. We propose a threshold-activation model as a physiological explanation for why engaging stressors, such as those involving social evaluation or uncontrollability, may seem to induce selectively cortisol release.

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  • Negative social evaluation also elicits autonomic nervous system activation, proinflammatory cytokine increases, and self-reported negative affect.

    “Negative social evaluation also elicits autonomic nervous system activation, proinflammatory cytokine increases, and self-reported negative affect (Akinola and Mendes, 2008; Bosch et al., 2009; Dickerson et al., 2009).”

    From More than a feeling: A unified view of stress measurement for population science (2018) · cites this paper as Bosch et al., 2009

    The Abstract (page not available in our copy) reports that social-evaluative conditions differed from nonevaluative conditions in cardiac autonomic activation and self-reported negative affect. It does not report proinflammatory cytokine increases; the described physiological measures are cardiac activity and cortisol. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Berntson GG. Reasoning about brains. In: Cacioppo JT, Visser PS, Pickett CL, editors. Social Neuroscience: People Thinking About People. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; 2006.

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Authors
Bosch, J. A., de Geus, E. J. C., Carroll, D., Goedhart, A. D., Anane, L. A., Veldhuizen van Zanten, J. J., Helmerhorst, E. J., & Edwards, K. M.
Affiliations
Boston University (US)
Corresponding author
Bosch, Jos A.
ORCID
Venue
Psychosomatic Medicine
Publisher
Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Published
2009-10
Volume
71
Issue
8
Pages
877-885
ISSN
0033-3174 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1097/psy.0b013e3181baef05
PMC
PMC4414334
OpenAlex
W2167890147
Cited by
164
References
67
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 8
FWCI
3.06
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Psychosomatic Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Pure Amsterdam UMC (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • VU Research Portal (submittedVersion)
  • Digital Academic REpository of VU University Amsterdam (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) (submittedVersion)
  • University of Birmingham Research Portal (University of Birmingham) (submittedVersion)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Ohio State University
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (R03-DE-16726, R03DE016726)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
Keywords
social-evaluative threat, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, cortisol, autonomic nervous system, sympathetic activation, parasympathetic activation, heart rate variability, speaking tasks, audience size, shame and embarrassment, anxiety, self-esteem, social stress
MeSH terms
Adult, Anxiety, Autonomic Nervous System, Blood Pressure, Cardiography, Impedance, Heart Rate, Humans, Hydrocortisone, Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System, Interpersonal Relations, Life Change Events, Pituitary-Adrenal System, Surveys and Questionnaires, Saliva, Self Concept, Shame, Speech, Stress, Psychological

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