Department of Preclinical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago.
Department of Preclinical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2018 Oct;96:126-131. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.06.012. Epub 2018 Jun 15.
Acute stress affects human decision making. It has been argued that there are systematic sex differences in behavioral responses to acute stress, with males showing a 'fight or flight' and females showing a 'tend and befriend' response. A 'tend and befriend' response would suggest that women become more cooperative under acute stress, while men do not. We investigated the effects of acute stress on social behavior. We induced stress via the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and then immediately after measured how participants reacted to offers made in the ultimatum game by a male proposer. We found that female participants were less likely to reject offers under stress (n = 25) vs. no stress (n = 37), p = 0.009, independent of how fair these offers were, cooperative behavior consistent with the 'tend and befriend' hypothesis. Male participants when stressed (n = 30) did not show differences in rejections rates compared to the control condition (n = 26), p = 0.41. Our results provide support for a qualitatively different behavioral response to acute stress among men and women.
急性压力会影响人类的决策。有人认为，在对急性压力的行为反应方面存在系统性的性别差异，男性表现出“战斗或逃跑”反应，而女性表现出“亲近和友好”反应。“亲近和友好”反应表明，女性在急性压力下会变得更加合作，而男性则不会。我们研究了急性压力对社交行为的影响。我们通过 Trier 社会压力测试（TSST）诱导压力，然后立即测量参与者在男性提议者提出的最后通牒游戏中对提议的反应。我们发现，女性参与者在压力下（n=25）比没有压力时（n=37）更不容易拒绝提议，p=0.009，无论这些提议有多公平，这种合作行为与“亲近和友好”假设一致。而在压力下的男性参与者（n=30）与对照组（n=26）相比，拒绝率没有差异，p=0.41。我们的结果为男性和女性对急性压力的反应存在质的不同提供了支持。
