Disentangling the Effects of Social versus Non-social Stress Exposure on Social Decision-Making in Men: Role of Social Anxiety
General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
Final Report Abstract
To the best of our knowledge, our study represents the first attempt to investigate a direct comparison of the effects of social and non-social acute stress on social decision-making. By combining well-established methods from stress research with behavioral social interactive paradigms and clinical psychological expertise, this project demonstrates that the the stressors’ modalities influence social behavior differently. Although cold water leads to the same physiological stress response as cold water + social evaluation, participants display reduced levels of pro-social behavior in the cold water condition, whereas this decrease disappears in the condition that combines cold water + social evaluation. Interestingly, high levels of social anxiety only significantly increased overall trust behavior, but revealed no influence on the other behavioral variables. This indicates that at least in healthy subjects, the level of social anxiety does not interact with effects from acute stressors. Whether these effects are different in patients suffering from clinically relevant social anxiety disorder still needs to be clarified.
Publications
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(2017). Auswirkungen akuter Stressoren auf soziale Interaktion bei sozialer Angst. 10. Workshopkongress der Fachgruppe Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie der DGPs, Chemnitz
von Dawans, B., Trüg, A., Voncken, M., Dziobek, I., Kirschbaum, C., Wolf, O., Hofmann, S., Fischbacher, U. & Heinrichs, M.
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(September 2017). Effects of social and non-social stress on social behavior in health and social anxiety disorder. 47th Meeting of the International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology, University of Zurich
von Dawans, B., Trüg, A., Voncken, M., Dziobek, I., Kirschbaum, C., Wolf, O., Hofmann, S., Fischbacher, U. & Heinrichs, M.
