Steinbeis Nikolaus, Engert Veronika, Linz Roman, Singer Tania
Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Department of Social Neuroscience, Stephanstrasse 1a, 04109 Leipzig, Germany.
Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Department of Social Neuroscience, Stephanstrasse 1a, 04109 Leipzig, Germany.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2015 Dec;62:138-48. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2015.08.003. Epub 2015 Aug 10.
The prevalence of psychosocial stress in Western societies is constantly on the rise. Its influence on social decision-making, however, remains poorly understood. Whereas, it is known that stress triggers psychological and physiological defense mechanisms, indications of such patterns in social decisions are ambivalent. We sought to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of stress-induced social decisions. We recruited 145 men, who were individually exposed to either a psychosocial stressor or a control condition, while primed with affiliation by interacting either with members of an in- or an out-group. We found that stressed participants were less trusting and engaged in less costly punishment compared to the non-stressed control group. Interacting with out-group members led to less reciprocity and more spiteful punishment. There was no interaction between stress and the affiliation conditions in any of the used social-decision-making paradigms. Lastly, while stress-reactive cortisol levels had no effect on trust behavior, higher baseline cortisol was correlated with greater trust. Our findings suggest that previous ambiguities in data reported on the influence of stress on social decisions, namely tend-and-befriend behavior may have arisen through critical social confounds in the induction of stress. When controlling for potential social confounds, stress may trigger fight-or-flight behavior as indicated by increased social anxiety. These findings highlight the considerable context-dependence of psychosocial stress and its effects on social behavior.
西方社会中心理社会压力的患病率持续上升。然而，其对社会决策的影响仍知之甚少。尽管已知压力会触发心理和生理防御机制，但社会决策中此类模式的迹象却模棱两可。我们试图阐明压力诱导社会决策的潜在机制。我们招募了145名男性，他们分别暴露于心理社会压力源或对照条件下，同时通过与内群体或外群体成员互动来激发归属感。我们发现，与无压力的对照组相比，有压力的参与者信任度较低，且参与成本较低的惩罚行为较少。与外群体成员互动导致互惠行为减少，恶意惩罚行为增加。在任何使用的社会决策范式中，压力与归属条件之间均无相互作用。最后，虽然应激反应性皮质醇水平对信任行为没有影响，但较高的基线皮质醇与更高的信任度相关。我们的研究结果表明，先前关于压力对社会决策影响（即趋向和结盟行为）的数据中的模糊性，可能是由于压力诱导过程中的关键社会混杂因素所致。当控制潜在的社会混杂因素时，压力可能会引发如社会焦虑增加所表明的战斗或逃跑行为。这些发现凸显了心理社会压力及其对社会行为影响的相当大的情境依赖性。
