Department of Psychological Science, Carthage College, Kenosha, Wisconsin, United States of America.
Department of Comparative Human Development, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2023 Jun 23;18(6):e0287153. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0287153. eCollection 2023.
This study investigated the effects of psychosocial stress on hormonal responses to a social interaction with an opposite-sex individual to test the hypothesis that stress may interfere with or suppress adaptive neuroendocrine responses to courtship opportunities. Heterosexual men and women were randomly assigned prior to arrival to either a control or psychosocial stress condition (Trier Social Stress Test) and subsequently went through a social interaction test with an opposite-sex individual. Expected increases of testosterone for control participants who interacted with opposite-sex individuals were not observed, and changes in testosterone were not observed for those in the psychosocial stress condition either. However, exploratory analyses in control participants showed main and interaction effects of relationship status were significant for both cortisol and testosterone. Specifically, single individuals showed higher levels of cortisol compared to those in a relationship, and single individuals showed significantly higher concentrations of cortisol after a social interaction when compared to individuals who were in a relationship. For testosterone, only individuals in a relationship decreased in testosterone following the social interaction. This study suggests that relationship status and psychosocial stress may be important variables moderating the relationship between an ecological cue of a potential courtship opportunity and subsequent adaptive physiological responses.
这项研究调查了心理社会压力对与异性进行社交互动时激素反应的影响，以检验以下假设：压力可能会干扰或抑制对求偶机会的适应性神经内分泌反应。在到达之前，将异性恋男性和女性随机分配到对照组或心理社会压力组（特里尔社会应激测试），然后与异性进行社交互动测试。与异性互动的对照组参与者的睾酮预期增加并未观察到，心理社会压力组的参与者的睾酮变化也未观察到。然而，在对照组参与者中进行的探索性分析显示，关系状态的主要和交互作用对皮质醇和睾酮均有显著影响。具体而言，单身个体的皮质醇水平明显高于有伴侣的个体，而与有伴侣的个体相比，单身个体在社交互动后皮质醇浓度显著升高。对于睾酮，只有有伴侣的个体在社交互动后睾酮水平下降。这项研究表明，关系状态和心理社会压力可能是调节潜在求偶机会的生态线索与随后适应性生理反应之间关系的重要变量。
