Challenge versus threat: How cognitive appraisals of stress modulate its effect on social behavior

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Markus Heinrichs; Dr. Bastian Schiller
• Subject Area: Biological Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 456759450

Psychosocial stress is constantly on the rise in our rapidly evolving digital society. However, the effects of stress on our social interactions remain poorly understood. In this line, even after a quarter-century of research using the Trier Social Stress Test as a standardized method to induce psychosocial stress experimentally, it has remained elusive under which conditions stress facilitates (“tend-and-befriend” hypothesis) or hinders (“fight-or-flight” hypothesis) prosocial behavior. Drawing on ideas from classical cognitive appraisal theories, the current proposal is based on the innovative assumption that previous heterogeneous findings might be resolved when accounting for differences in cognitive appraisals of stress as challenging (resources > demands) versus threatening (resources < demands). In two studies, this project seeks to provide causal evidence favoring the conjecture that cognitive appraisals modulate behavioral stress effects. In the first study, we will manipulate the situational demands of the stressful situation by having participants perform the TSST in a “foreign language” version compared to the standard version. We hypothesize that performing the TSST in a foreign language (i.e., English) will raise situational demands and threat appraisals, thereby decreasing prosocial behavior. In the second study, we plan to strengthen participants’ perceptions of their individual resources by teaching them how to reappraise their stress-related arousal as adaptive. We expect that they will then reveal more adaptive social coping mechanisms and exhibit more prosocial behavior towards others. Furthermore, analyzing the temporal dynamics of neurophysiological processing will further provide key mechanistic insights into the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the effect of stress appraisals on social behavior. In sum, by providing a novel perspective on the modulatory role of appraisals on social behavior under stress, this project could both integrate theoretical approaches on the effects of stress on social behavior and reveal adaptive and maladaptive strategies to cope with stress with potential applications for the cognitive-behavioral treatment of stress-related disorders. Combining the unique strengths, expertise, and experience of both applicants in three critical research fields (social interaction paradigms, psychosocial stress induction, spatio-temporal EEG analyses), it should be of interest to a wide variety of researchers including those involved in social interaction and cognition, psychophysiology, emotion processing, and clinical psychology.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants