Article

Stressful politics: Voters' cortisol responses to the outcome of the 2008 United States Presidential election

December 2009
Psychoneuroendocrinology 35(5):768-74

DOI:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2009.10.018

Source
PubMed

Authors:

Steven J Stanton

Oakland University

Kevin S. LaBar

Duke University

Ekjyot K Saini

Auburn University

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Social subordination can be biologically stressful; when mammals lose dominance contests they have acute increases in the stress hormone cortisol. However, human studies of the effect of dominance contest outcomes on cortisol changes have had inconsistent results. Moreover, human studies have been limited to face-to-face competitions and have heretofore never examined cortisol responses to shifts in political dominance hierarchies. The present study investigated voters' cortisol responses to the outcome of the 2008 United States Presidential election. 183 participants at two research sites (Michigan and North Carolina) provided saliva samples at several time points before and after the announcement of the winner on Election Night. Radioimmunoassay was used to measure levels of cortisol in the saliva samples. In North Carolina, John McCain voters (losers) had increases in post-outcome cortisol levels, whereas Barack Obama voters (winners) had stable post-outcome cortisol levels. The present research provides novel evidence that societal shifts in political dominance can impact biological stress responses in voters whose political party becomes socio-politically subordinate.

The Impact of Conservatism and Elected Party Representation on Mental Health Outcomes During Major Elections

Article

Jun 2021
J SOC CLIN PSYCHOL

Introduction: The American Psychological Association's national surveys have revealed high levels of stress surrounding the political climate since the 2016 United States (U.S.) presidential election. The two current studies aimed to further evaluate the impact of political factors, such as social and economic conservatism and political party affiliation mismatch between individuals and their local or federal officials, on emotional experiences. Methods: Data for these studies were collected through Amazon's Mechanical Turk following the 2016 and 2018 U.S. elections. Results: Results from Study 1 revealed that following the 2016 presidential election, higher social and economic conservatism was associated with less political obsessions and lower levels of depression. Results from Study 2 also demonstrated that following the 2018 midterm elections, higher conservatism predicted lower depression, less political obsessions, lower levels of negative affect, and higher positive affect. Additionally, conservatism moderated the relationship between party affiliation mismatch between participants and their official in the U.S. House of Representatives and both anxiety and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The relationship between mismatch of party affiliation for participants’ Senators and obsessive-compulsive symptoms was also moderated by conservatism. Discussion: These studies suggest that political factors, particularly conservatism, may impact emotional experiences and mental health symptoms during times of increased political polarization. Future studies should further explore the impact of political divisiveness on individual's stress levels and emotional well-being.

Voting at Home Is Associated with Lower Cortisol than Voting at the Polls

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2015
PLOS ONE

Previous research finds that voting is a socially stressful activity associated with increases in cortisol levels. Here we extend this research by investigating whether different voting modalities have differential effects on the stress response to voting. Results from a field experiment conducted during the 2012 presidential elections strongly suggest that traditional "at the polls" voting is more stressful, as measured by increases in cortisol levels, than voting at home by mail-in ballot or engaging in comparable non-political social activities. These findings imply that increased low-stress voting options such as mail-in ballots may increase political participation among individuals who are sensitive to social stressors.

Core Beliefs Disruption in the Context of an Election: Implications for Subjective Well-Being

Article

Jun 2021

Major life events often challenge the core beliefs people hold about the world, which is a crucial cognitive process predictive of adjustment outcomes. Elections have been associated with physical and socioemotional responses, but what is unclear is whether core beliefs can be disrupted and what implication this disruption might have for well-being. In two studies, we examined the association between core beliefs disruption and well-being in the context of the 2018 U.S. midterm election. In both studies, participants reported a small degree of disruption of core beliefs due to the election. In Study 1, a 14-day daily diary study spanning the weeks before and after the election, multilevel modeling on 529 daily reports revealed that greater disruption of core beliefs was associated with lower mean levels of life satisfaction and greater changes in positive and negative affect. In Study 2, a cross-sectional study conducted 40 days following the election, linear regression analyses on 767 adults aged 18–77 from all 50 states revealed that the disruption of core beliefs due to the midterm election was positively associated with current life satisfaction. The effect held when controlling for multiple confounding factors. These findings suggest that elections can trigger disruption of core beliefs, and this disruption may spill over to subjective well-being in the short term but may positively contribute to post-election adjustment.

Is Divisive Politics Making Americans Sick? Associations of Perceived Partisan Polarization with Physical and Mental Health Outcomes Among Adults in the United States

Article

May 2021

Objectives To investigate whether changes in perceived partisan polarization since the 2016 US presidential election and current perceptions of polarization are associated with the onset of physical and mental health conditions in adults. Methods We surveyed a nationally-representative sample (n=2,752) of US adults between December 2019 and January 2020. We used multivariable logistic regression to estimate associations between perceived polarization and the incidence of hypertension, high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes, and anxiety, depressive, and sleep disorders in or after 2016 and current self-rated health. Our secondary exposure variables measured perceptions of mass and elite polarization at the state and national level. Perceived mass polarization measured perceptions of the partisan gap between Democrat and Republican voters; perceived elite polarization measured perceptions of the partisan gap between Democrat and Republican elected officials. Results Participants reporting an increase in polarization had 52-57% higher odds of developing depressive disorders (OR=1.52, 95% CI: 1.01, 2.29, P=0.047) and anxiety disorders (OR=1.57, 95% CI: 1.07, 2.29, P=0.02) compared to participants who perceived no change in polarization. Those reporting high (vs. low) levels of perceived state-level mass polarization had a 49% higher odds of incident depressive disorders (P=0.03). Participants who perceived high levels of state-level elite polarization reported a 71% higher odds of incident depressive disorders (P=0.004) and a 49% higher odds of incident sleep disorders (P=0.03). Conclusions Perceptions of partisan polarization may represent important factors that are linked to the onset of mental health and sleep disorders.

Following the 2016 Presidential Election: Positive and Negative Mood Affect and the Impetus Towards Activisim

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2019

Given the tenuousness of the U.S. presidential race and subsequent election, it appears that more individuals are becoming politically active. What remains unclear is how the current political climate has influenced citizens regarding their perceptions of feeling psychologically safe, the related mood affect, and their impetus towards activism. Additionally, the role of social media in todays world is seemingly a key stimulus for individuals who were typically less involved in the past become more so now. Given there may be a number of reasons that individuals feel moved to engage in discourse and action that others might view as unconventional or rebellious, the intent of this study was to investigate activism and mood affect as mediated by social media use to better understand peoples motivation for becoming more socially engaged. While historically, there have been numerous movements to address perceived societal and governmental injustices, how safe individuals feel when becoming involved is still up for debate. Findings from this study showed that individuals experienced positive and negative mood affect in both the likelihood they will engage in a variety of activist behaviors in the future, as well as seeing themselves as being politically active. Furthermore, the role of social media also showed a relationship between participants positive and negative mood affect, as well as sense of activism, demonstrating the impact of social media on how people express their opinions today. Keywords: activism, mood affect, psychological safety, social media

The Dangers of Porous Borders: The Trump Effect in Canada

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2019

Donald J. Trump’s journey to the White House signaled the resurgence of right-wing populism in the United States. His campaign and his surprising electoral victory rode a wave of anti-elitism and xenophobia. He masterfully exploited the economic and cultural anxieties of white working class and petite bourgeois Americans by deflecting blame for their woes onto the “usual suspects,” among them minorities, liberals, Muslims, professionals and immigrants. His rhetoric touched a chord, and in fact emboldened and energized white supremacist ideologies, identities, movements and practices in the United States and around the world. Indeed, the Trump Effect touched Canada as well. This paper explores how the American politics of hate unleashed by Trump’s right-wing populist posturing galvanized Canadian white supremacist ideologies, identities, movements and practices. Following Trump’s win, posters plastered on telephone poles in Canadian cities invited “white people” to visit alt-right websites. Neo-Nazis spray painted swastikas on a mosque, a synagogue and a church with a black pastor. Online, a reactionary white supremacist subculture violated hate speech laws with impunity while stereotyping and demonizing nonwhite people. Most strikingly, in January 2017, Canada witnessed its most deadly homegrown terrorist incident: Alexandre Bissonnete, a right-wing extremist and Trump supporter, murdered six men at the Islamic cultural centre of Quebec City. Our paper provides an overview of the manifestations of the Trump Effect in Canada. We also contextualize the antecedents of Trump’s resonance in Canada, highlighting the conditions for and currents and characteristics of right-wing extremism in Canada.

Fear and Hate in Alabama and Beyond: Narratives of Immigration in the Trump Campaign

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2019

Silvia Giagnoni

In August 2015, in one of his first appearances as President-hopeful, Donald Trump galvanized his audience in Mobile, Alabama, by criminalizing immigrants and attacking sanctuary cities. Capitalizing on fear, he referred to the tragic deaths of two white women by the hands of undocumented immigrants. Trump knew those high-profile cases would resonate with Alabamians who have been fed similar rhetoric by Fox News and its echo chamber on the web. This essay explores the use of hate speech and negative portrayals of immigrants during the presidential campaign of Donald Trump with particular attention to the progressive criminalization of foreign-born individuals and Mexicans specifically. It also points to the current discourse dominated today in conservative media by the narrative of security, a narrative that today lumps together illegal immigration, crime, and terrorism. The essay investigates how such narrative has been reproduced by politicians and media pundits: to begin with, by Kansas Secretary of State and attorney Kris Kobach, who drafted the harshest state-level, anti-immigration bill that passed in 2011 in Alabama, HB 56, which represented an experiment in the removal by attrition (or self-deportation) strategy; by the former U.S. Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, once a U.S. Senator from Mobile, renown for being tough on crime and for his restrictionist stance on immigration; and by the once-Fox News TV host, Bill OReilly, who spearheaded the efforts to pass a law that further criminalize immigrants by establishing mandatory minimums for illegal reentry. The essay explores the role played by self-segregation in reinforcing stereotypical ideas about the Other; explains why immigration is the perfect topic to spin; and illustrates the lingering influence of cable TV in cultivating views about immigrants. The essay concludes by pointing to the emergence of alternative narratives of immigration in Alabama and beyond and provides further directions for research on the topic. Keywords: immigration; narrative; Alabama; criminalization; self-segregation; cultivation theory; terrorism; security Give us your tired, your poor, your terrorists. Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) in Law & Order

The Dangers of Porous Borders: The “Trump Effect” in Canada [Journal of Hate Studies]

Article

Full-text available

Oct 2018

Young Adults’ Psychological and Physiological Reactions to the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election

Article

Mar 2018
PSYCHONEUROENDOCRINO

Elections present unique opportunities to study how sociopolitical events influence individual processes. The current study examined 286 young adults' mood and diurnal cortisol responses to the 2016 U.S. presidential election in real-time: two days before the election, election night, and two days after the election of Donald Trump, with the goal of understanding whether (and the extent to which) the election influenced young adults' affective and biological states. Utilizing piecewise trajectory analyses, we observed high, and increasing, negative affect leading up to the election across all participants. Young adults who had negative perceptions of Trump's ability to fulfill the role of president and/or were part of a non-dominant social group (i.e., women, ethnic/racial minority young adults) reported increased signs of stress before the election and on election night. After the election, we observed a general "recovery" in self-reported mood; however, diurnal cortisol indicators suggested that there was an increase in biological stress among some groups. Overall, findings underscore the role of macro-level factors in individuals' health and well-being via more proximal attitudes and physiological functioning.

How has the presidential election affected young Americans?

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2018
Child Adolesc Psychiatr Ment Health

The 2016 presidential election season and subsequent political events have had physical and emotional impacts on youth. We collected qualitative insights from 14 to 24 year olds across the US related to these events over time. Open-ended probes were sent via text message at three time points before and after the 2016 presidential election. The majority of youth reported emotional stress during all three time points, and female participants were significantly more likely to experience emotional responses. White participants were more likely to report negative symptoms than their peers both pre-election and at 4-months post-election. While preliminary, the results indicate that feelings of stress, anxiety, and fear have persisted in the months following the election, particularly for young women. Additional research is needed to examine the long-term effects of political events on the emotional and physical health of youth.

An Examination of Political Attitudes and Behavior Using Regulatory Focus Theory

Article

Dec 2017

Kristen Deppe

Using Regulatory Focus Theory (RFT, Higgins 1997), I take a broad look at the manner in which political behaviors and attitudes are impacted by the promotion and prevention motivational systems. I first look at how behavior in life generally and political life specifically are similar in terms of regulatory focus. Second, I look at how RFT is related to political attitudes. Specifically, I look at whether there is a connection between regulatory focus and ideological attitudes, whether there is a relationship between policy context and motivational systems, and whether the status quo of a policy leads to a relationship between focus and issue attitudes. Finally, I look at how regulatory fit impacts the intention to vote as well as attitudes related to casting a ballot. I look at process based regulatory fit by interacting a person’s chronic regulatory focus and how they behave in political life. I also analyze outcome based fit by manipulating focus and the content of a Get Out the Vote message. I examine these topics by using three separate studies – two surveys and one experiment. I show people generally use either eager or vigilant strategies across both every day and political life. I also show that people who use eager strategies vote for their preferred candidate while those using vigilant strategies are more likely to blackball disliked candidates. My findings show a much stronger connection between a general proclivity to use eager strategies and holding a promotion orientation than prevention focus and using vigilant strategies. In addition, I find that the environment in which people are politically active impacts attitudes. For example, the current status quo of a policy impacts how regulatory focus is related to issue attitudes. Also, under certain conditions, the combination of focus and strategy use can increase external efficacy and positive attitudes related to voting. Overall, people’s motivational systems color their view of the political world and how they relate to it. Advisor: John R. Hibbing

Acute Stress Reduces Perceived Trustworthiness of Male Racial Outgroup Faces

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2017

Outgroup members are often perceived as threating and untrustworthy, and this is particularly true for judgments of outgroup males. As race influences perceptions of group membership, male racial outgroup faces (MROFs) are judged as less trustworthy than male racial ingroup faces (MRIFs). Neurologically, this effect is mediated by amygdala activation, a brain region central to the processing of fear-related stimuli, threat detection, vigilance regulation and facial trustworthiness. As acute stress up regulates amygdala activity and promotes hyper-vigilance towards threatening stimuli, we hypothesised that acute stress would result in increased vigilance and lower trustworthiness judgements towards MROFs. In contrast, we expected that stress would have no effect on MRIFs. Using a within-subjects design, White-Dutch male participants rated the perceived trustworthiness of White males (ingroup) and Arab males (outgroup) under stress and during the absence of stress (baseline). Stress significantly reduced trust towards racial outgroup members, whilst trust towards racial ingroup members was maintained. Understanding the mechanisms by which stress differentially affects social behaviors towards outgroups is of theoretical and practical relevance to our understanding of the biological basis of ethnocentrism and xenophobia.

Do elections make you sick? Evidence from first‐time voters

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2023
HEALTH ECON

Elections permit the continuance of democracy and enable economic development, but may have unintended effects on health. By applying a two‐part model with regression discontinuity design to administrative health care claims, we determine that elections increased health care use during legally specified campaign periods by as much as 19% for first‐time voters. Contrary to earlier studies focusing on mental health, we find higher spending on the treatment of physical health conditions, such as acute respiratory infections, gastrointestinal conditions and injuries. Levels of medical spending during campaign periods were highest in rural areas and among low‐to‐middle‐income men. Using data on campaign spending from local elections, we identify campaign rallies as one important mechanism for the transmission of disease. Our findings provide additional rationale for policies that limit campaign spending on the grounds that it is socially wasteful.

Looking for Safety in All the Right Places: When Threatening Political Reality Strengthens Family Relationship Bonds

Article

Full-text available

May 2021

Elections and pandemics highlight how much one’s safety depends on fellow community members, a realization that is especially threatening when this collective perceives political realities inconsistent with one’s own. Two longitudinal studies examined how people restored safety to social bonds when everyday experience suggested that fellow community members inhabited inconsistent realities. We operationalized consensus political realities through the negativity of daily nationwide social media posts mentioning President Trump (Studies 1 and 2), and the risks of depending on fellow community members through the pending transition to a divided Congress during the 2018 election season (Study 1), and escalating daily U.S. COVID-19 infections (Study 2). On days that revealed people could not count on fellow community members to perceive the same reality of President Trump’s stewardship they perceived, being at greater risk from the judgment and behavior of the collective community motivated people to find greater happiness in their family relationships.

Arrhythmia Risk During the 2016 US Presidential Election: The Cost of Stressful Politics

Article

Full-text available

May 2021

Background Anger and extreme stress can trigger potentially fatal cardiovascular events in susceptible people. Political elections, such as the 2016 US presidential election, are significant stressors. Whether they can trigger cardiac arrhythmias is unknown. Methods and Results In this retrospective case‐crossover study, we linked cardiac device data, electronic health records, and historic voter registration records from 2436 patients with implanted cardiac devices. The incidence of arrhythmias during the election was compared with a control period with Poisson regression. We also tested for effect modification by demographics, comorbidities, political affiliation, and whether an individual's political affiliation was concordant with county‐level election results. Overall, 2592 arrhythmic events occurred in 655 patients during the hazard period compared with 1533 events in 472 patients during the control period. There was a significant increase in the incidence of composite outcomes for any arrhythmia (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 1.77 [95% CI, 1.42–2.21]), supraventricular arrhythmia (IRR, 1.82 [95% CI, 1.36–2.43]), and ventricular arrhythmia (IRR, 1.60 [95% CI, 1.22–2.10]) during the election relative to the control period. There was also an increase in specific types of arrhythmia, including atrial fibrillation (IRR, 1.50 [95% CI, 1.06–2.11]), supraventricular tachycardia (IRR, 3.7 [95% CI, 2.2–6.2]), nonsustained ventricular tachycardia (IRR, 1.7 [95% CI, 1.3–2.2]), and daily atrial fibrillation burden ( P <0.001). No significant interaction was found for sex, race/ethnicity, device type, age ≥65 years, hypertension, coronary artery disease, heart failure, political affiliation, or concordance between individual political affiliation and county‐level election results. Conclusions There was a significant increase in cardiac arrhythmias during the 2016 US presidential election. These findings suggest that exposure to stressful sociopolitical events may trigger arrhythmogenesis in susceptible people.

Coping with Politics: The Benefits and Costs of Emotion Regulation

Article

Aug 2020

Politics permeates everyday life, often evoking negative emotions among the public and affecting their well-being. Politics has, in essence, become a chronic stressor for many. Fortunately, people can protect themselves from politics: people commonly employ emotion regulation strategies to help reduce their negative emotional responses to politics and thereby protect emotional well-being. However, this protection may also come at a cost when people lose their affectively-driven motivation to take action aimed at changing the political system that evoked the negative emotions in the first place. Here, we review the recent literature examining emotion regulation and political action, considering both the benefits and costs of emotion regulation. Finally, we outline several important unresolved questions to guide future research.

Honeymoon or hangover? How election outcomes produce emotional shifts to winning candidate smiles

Article

Jan 2020
PERS INDIV DIFFER

Presidential elections are emotion-laden affairs felt psychologically by both competitors and followers. The emotional fallout of losing competitive contests has been documented in the literature but little research has considered the change in affect among political followers in the aftermath of an unsuccessful election. This study examines changes in self-reported happiness, anger, and distress to different smile types expressed by Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, measured immediately prior to and again following the 2012 presidential election. A panel of online respondents (N = 214) were shown four video clips featuring different smile types from each candidate before and after the election. Obama's clips featured an amusement and controlled-amusement smile, while Romney's featured a posed and contempt smiles. Findings revealed significant differences in self-reported emotional response to Obama. Followers of Obama reported an increase in happiness when shown examples of the president's smile after the election but no change in response to Romney's smiles. However, Romney's followers reported a significant increase in anger and distress towards Obama's smiles post-election, but minimal change to their own candidate. Election outcomes not only determine office holders; they also produce emotional shifts in the electorate that are most responsive to the electoral victor.

Political events and mood among young physicians: A prospective cohort study

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2019
Br Med J

Objective To study the effects of recent political events on mood among young physicians. Design Prospective cohort study. Setting United States medical centres. Participants 2345 medical interns provided longitudinal mood data as part of the Intern Health Study between 2016 and 2018. Main outcome measures Mean mood score during the week following influential political and non-political events as compared with mean mood during the preceding four week control period. Results We identified nine political events and eight non-political events for analysis. With the start of internship duties in July, the mean decline in mood for interns was −0.30 (95% confidence interval −0.33 to −0.27, t=−17.45, P<0.001). The decline in mood was of similar magnitude following the 2016 presidential election (mean mood change −0.32, 95% confidence interval −0.45 to −0.19, t=−4.73, P<0.001) and subsequent inauguration (mean mood change −0.25, 95% confidence interval −0.37 to −0.12, t=−3.93, P<0.001). Further, compared with men, women reported greater mood declines after both the 2016 election (mean gender difference 0.31, 95% confidence interval 0.05 to 0.58, t=2.33, P=0.02) and the inauguration (mean gender difference 0.25, 95% confidence interval 0.01 to 0.49, t=2.05, P=0.04). Overall, there were statistically significant changes in mood following 66.7% (6/9) of political events assessed. In contrast, none of the non-political events included in the analysis were statistically significantly associated with a change in mood. Conclusions Macro level factors such as politics may be correlated with the mood of young doctors. This finding signals the need for further evaluation of the consequences of increasing entanglement between politics and medicine moving forward for young physicians and their patients.

A Tale of Bias: Longitudinal Evidence of the Effect of Electoral Defeat on Citizens' Evaluations of the Economy

Article

Oct 2019
INT J PUBLIC OPIN R

The winner-loser electoral status may affect citizens' perceptions of the national economy. In the context of Europe, this issue has aroused little interest as multi-party competition makes it difficult to study. We look at the 2016 Italian constitutional referendum, a top-down national referendum, which approximates second-order elections and divides voters in two groups, allowing the study of the effects of elections on opinions. Using a pre-post referendum panel survey, results show that losers-relying on motivated reasoning-radically change their retrospective and prospective economic evaluations after the referendum, and that this effect is conditional on party identification. The article provides new evidence on the role of partisan loyalties in the adjustment of economic perceptions.

The Hand of God or the Work of the Devil? Spiritual Appraisals and Psychological Adjustment After the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2019

To what extent do people perceive the election of President Trump as the work of evil forces, a violation of the sacred, or the will of God? Demonization and desecration are negative spiritual appraisals associated with psychological maladjustment across political and relational contexts. Sanctification refers to the imbuing of persons, objects, or events with sacred qualities or as manifestations of a higher power. The authors examined the prevalence and role of spiritual appraisals related to the 2016 U.S. presidential election result on psychological adjustment and behaviors using a cross‐sectional online sample of 252 American voters. Approximately one‐fifth of participants sanctified the election of President Trump to some degree. Conversely, approximately one‐third of participants endorsed some level of negative spiritual appraisals. Desecration and demonization also uniquely predicted maladjustment. Moreover, the interactive effect between vote and negative spiritual appraisals accounted for unique variance in maladjustment. At higher levels of demonization and desecration, those who voted for President Trump reported greater difficulties with emotion regulation than those who voted against President Trump. Negative spiritual appraisals also moderated the relations between vote and thought suppression, in addition to vote and information seeking behavior. For the small fraction of Trump voters with negative spiritual appraisals, their efforts to suppress misgivings, struggle with emotions, and seek information may be understood as attempts to reduce cognitive dissonance.

Secondary Outcomes of a Legislated Stadium Subsidy

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2022

Legislated stadium subsidies—the allocation of public funding toward stadium projects without a direct vote by citizens—has been the primary funding mechanism in more than 80% of the major professional sport stadium projects occurring in North America between 2005–2020. In the absence of a public vote, the degree to which citizens support a stadium subsidy is unclear. To investigate how citizens first appraise, and then respond to, a legislated stadium subsidy, we surveyed voters in Franklin County, Ohio, about the public purchase of Nationwide Arena, the anchor property of Columbus’s downtown Arena District. The results of structural model testing provided support for eight of 11 hypotheses. Both perceived stadium impact and trust in government were significant predictors of one’s evaluation of the public-financing plan. In turn, this evaluation impacted voter attitudes toward the stadium’s primary tenant, policymakers associated with the plan, and the democratic process in general.

Emotional reactivity changes to daily stressors surrounding the 2016 U.S. presidential election

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2021
CURR PSYCHOL

Results from the Nov. 8, 2016 U.S. presidential election largely contradicted expectations which indicated a popular and electoral majority for the democratic candidate. Although the date of the election was known, the result was not anticipated. We examined potential changes in within-person emotional reactivity to personally-relevant stressors as a function of the more distal, U.S. presidential election. During October and November of 2016 we conducted a daily diary study of stressors and well-being in younger adults. A subsample (n = 29 individuals aged 18–22 reporting on 235 days total) of the larger project (n = 107 total) began the 9-day study protocol on Nov. 2 and completed it on Nov. 10. The U.S. Presidential election took place on Nov. 8. Multilevel analyses of the 880 total study days comparing the election subsample and the comparison subsample revealed significant increases in emotional reactivity to daily stressors from before the election to after the election; emotional reactivity became amplified in the short term after the election. These findings highlight the importance of both distal and proximal environmental factors for individual responses in the daily stress process unfolding over time.

Elections Have Consequences for Student Mental Health: An Accidental Daily Diary Study

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2018

Polling suggested that the 2016 United States presidential election affected citizens' mood and stress levels. Yet, polling often fails to employ repeated measurement designs that can capture pre- and post-levels of change within the same person. In this study, undergraduate students (N = 85) completed a 14-day daily diary where mood, stress, and mental health outcomes were assessed before and after the election. Multilevel modeling revealed an immediate upsurge in anxiety, stress, and poor sleep quality the day after the election, followed by a recovery period indicating these effects were short-lived. Other reactions (anger, fear, marginalization, and experiencing discrimination) evidenced a significant upsurge without a significant recovery. We consider how daily diary research designs like this one could be integrated into college settings to inform counseling center resource allocation, and we also comment on the promise of the daily diary methodology for political research.

Perceptions of general and postpresidential election discrimination are associated with loss of control eating among racially/ethnically diverse young men

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2017

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine the association between young men's perceived experiences with discrimination, both general and following the 2016 presidential election, and their loss of control (LOC) eating. The degree to which men identified with their ethnic identity was evaluated as a moderator. Method: The sample included 798 men (18-30 years; M = 24.0 ± 3.6) who identified as African American (n = 261), Asian/Asian American (n = 266), or Hispanic/Latino (n = 271). Participants completed an online survey of items assessing demographic characteristics; perceived discrimination; perceptions of race-related discrimination following the 2016 U.S. presidential election; ethnic identity; and LOC eating. Results: After adjusting for income, education, generational status and body mass index, perceived discrimination was positively associated with LOC eating frequency in African American and Hispanic/Latino men (ps < .01). Ethnic identity was inversely associated with LOC eating frequency in Hispanic/Latino men (p < .001). In Asian/Asian American men, perceived discrimination was only associated with more LOC eating among those with a low ethnic identity (p < .001). Higher levels of perceived discrimination following the presidential election were uniquely associated with more frequent LOC eating (p < .01) only among Asian/Asian American men who were not born in the United States or whose parents were not born in the United States. Discussion: LOC eating may partially explain known associations between discrimination and heightened risk for obesity and chronic diseases among African American and Hispanic/Latino men. Asian/Asian American men's LOC eating may be linked to postpresidential election and general experiences with racial discrimination, particularly if they report a low sense of belonging to their ethnic group.

Impacts of adolescent and young adult civic engagement on health and socioeconomic status in adulthood

Preprint

Full-text available

Sep 2017

Impacts of Adolescent and Young Adult Civic Engagement on Health and Socioeconomic Status in Adulthood

Article

Sep 2017
CHILD DEV

The present study examines links between civic engagement (voting, volunteering, and activism) during late adolescence and early adulthood, and socioeconomic status and mental and physical health in adulthood. Using nationally representative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a propensity score matching approach is used to rigorously estimate how civic engagement is associated with outcomes among 9,471 adolescents and young adults (baseline Mage = 15.9). All forms of civic engagement are positively associated with subsequent income and education level. Volunteering and voting are favorably associated with subsequent mental health and health behaviors, and activism is associated with more health-risk behaviors and not associated with mental health. Civic engagement is not associated with physical health.

Winning, Losing, and the Dynamics of External Political Efficacy

Article

Full-text available

May 2016

Hormones and Hierarchies

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2014

Research on human endocrine function and social status has persisted separately for several decades. But recent work in the field of social endocrinology points to a fundamental role for hormones in human status hierarchies. In this chapter, we review evidence of the reciprocal relationship between hormones and hierarchical status, focusing on human endocrine systems that influence and respond to social behavior in pursuit of status. We introduce basic anatomy and physiology pertinent to understanding each hormone's role in human status, relying on animal research as needed to inform our discussion. We selectively review research on testosterone and its relationship to dominant behavior as well as the relationship between cortisol, stress, and status. We then turn to recent evidence on the interaction between testosterone and cortisol in status hierarchies. Estradiol and oxytocin are examined next in relation to female and intergroup status hierarchies, respectively. We conclude with future directions for research on the interplay between hormones and hierarchies. © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014. All rights are reserved.

Mass Political Behavior and Biology

Chapter

Full-text available

Jan 2016

Gregg R. Murray

The objective of this chapter is to introduce readers to research that addresses the effects of biological forces on behaviors central to democracy: voting, forming political opinions, and cognitively engaging public issues. It provides an overview of the literature on mass political behavior and behavioral genetics. This includes the substantial body of heritability studies (e.g., twin studies) and the small but growing number of genomic studies (e.g., genome-wide association studies). Then it introduces political neuroscience, which has been driven by the emergence of fMRI scans and is poised to explore a vast and mostly untouched behavioral territory. Next it reviews biological perspectives on mass political behavior that have not received as much attention but appear to be well-positioned to grow: evolution, biological signals and cues, behavioral endocrinology, and health status. Finally, it speculates about how biologically informed research can help scholars more thoroughly understand mass political behavior.

Close Versus Decisive Victory Moderates the Effect of Testosterone Change on Competitive Decisions and Task Enjoyment

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2015

Prior research found that testosterone change after defeat predicted the decision to compete against the same opponent, but testosterone change after victory was unrelated to competitive behavior. The present research tested whether testosterone responses have differential effects on competitive decision-making depending on whether an individual either barely or decisively won a competition. Seventy-one undergraduate males provided an afternoon saliva sample and then participated in a laboratory cognitive contest in which they were randomly assigned to experience a relatively close or decisive victory against a male confederate. Participants provided a second saliva sample after the competition and then chose whether to: (a) compete against the same opponent, (b) compete against a new opponent, or (c) complete an alternative non-competitive task. Participants also reported how much they enjoyed the competitive task. Testosterone change and the propensity to compete were positively related after a decisive victory, but were negatively related after a close victory. These effects were driven by the decision to compete against a new opponent. In fact, very few participants chose to compete against the same opponent. Testosterone change after a decisive victory was also positively associated with participants’ self-reported enjoyment of the competitive task. Together, these results provide new evidence that a close versus decisive victory moderates the effect of testosterone change on future competitive behavior, an effect that may be linked to changes in reward processing systems.

Motivation and morality: Insights into political ideology

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2014

Our past work linking motivation and morality provides a basis for understanding differences in political ideology and positions across the political spectrum. Conservatism is rooted in avoidance-based proscriptive morality, whereas liberalism is rooted in approach-based prescriptive morality. Two distinct, binding, group moralities reflect these different regulatory systems and emphasize social coordination through Social Order versus social cooperation through Social Justice.

Testosterone and Men's Stress Responses to Gender Threats

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2014

Given findings suggesting that basal testosterone (T) is a biological marker of dominance striving that buffers people against stress, we examined the role of basal T in men’s stress responses (cortisol reactivity) following a private, noncompetitive gender status threat. One-hundred twenty-eight men recruited from a university in the Southeast provided saliva samples both before and 15 minutes after receiving feedback that either threatened or affirmed their gender status. Gender threatening feedback elicited heightened cortisol reactivity among men who were low, but not high, in basal T (interaction ƒ² = .03). This suggests that men high in T may be buffered from the immediate psychophysiological effects of manhood threats. Discussion considers how these findings add to the literature on basal T and reactions to status threats. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved)

On pins and needles: anxiety, politics and the 2020 U.S. Presidential election

Article

Mar 2023

Contemporary U.S. politics is characterized by a high degree of political polarization and conflict. Consequently, scholars have become increasingly interested in understanding how political factors and events impact different dimensions of health, such as anxiety. Using data from a nationally-representative, two-wave panel survey conducted before and after the 2020 U.S. presidential election, we develop a measure of political anxiety and examine how levels of political anxiety changed following the election. In general, we find that levels of political anxiety decreased following the presidential election. We then examine individual-level factors that influence post-election levels of political anxiety. Those who are highly politically engaged, interested in politics, and who score highly on negative emotionality felt more political anxiety than their counterparts after the election. Those who voted for Donald Trump, conservatives, and African Americans reported feeling less political anxiety than their counterparts following the election. Our findings regarding vote choice and ideology are somewhat surprising in light of previous research on the impact of electoral loss. We conclude with a discussion of what might be driving some of our counterintuitive results and provide ideas for future research.

"When the political becomes personal": evaluation of an elected president, election distress, and college students' psychological well-being

Article

Jan 2023
J AM COLL HEALTH

Objective: Although emerging adults’ civic engagement is generally associated with positive outcomes, concerns about an elected candidate’s leadership ability and the implications of administrative turnover may negatively impact youths’ well-being. Using longitudinal data collected during the 2016 election cycle, the current study examined whether negative evaluation of a presidential candidate—who is eventually elected—may be indirectly associated with college students’ psychological well-being due to increased election distress. Participants: 286 college-attending emerging adults (Mage= 20, SDage = 1.40) participated in the current study. Methods: Path models linking evaluation of Trump’s leadership ability (pre-election) to psychological well-being (approx. 100 days in office) via election distress (presidential inauguration) were computed. Results: Reporting lower confidence in Trump’s leadership ability prior to the election was associated with greater election distress 3 months post-election, and in turn, poorer psychological well-being 6 months post-election. Conclusion: Findings underscore the importance of centering college students’ well-being within a broader sociopolitical context.

Study of Oxytocin in Biopolitics

Chapter

Nov 2022

Seyoung Jung

Elections have (health) consequences: Depression, anxiety, and the 2020 presidential election

Article

Oct 2022

Sankar Mukhopadhyay

In this paper, we examine the effect of the 2020 presidential election on anxiety and depression among Americans. We use data from the 2020 Household Pulse Survey (HPS), a nationally representative rapid response survey conducted weekly from April to July of 2020 and then bi-weekly until December of 2021. The high-frequency nature of the survey implies that we can identify week-to-week changes in mental health outcomes. We find that self-reported symptoms of moderate to severe anxiety and depression increased steadily up to the presidential election and declined after the election. The anxiety and depression levels are significantly higher around the 2020 election than in April 2020, when most of the U.S. was under mandatory or advisory stay-at-home orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, anxiety and depression-specific office visits and usage of mental-health-specific prescription drugs show similar patterns. Robustness checks rule out alternative explanations such as a COVID-19 surge or vaccine development.

Racial and ethnic differences in blood pressure before and after the 2016 United States general election

Article

Jul 2022

Objectives: The 2016 U.S. presidential election was a major source of stress among many adults. Psychosocial stress can manifest physiologically in elevated blood pressure (BP). Little is known regarding the association of macro-level sociopolitical events with BP changes at the population-level. This study sought to characterize population-level changes in BP following the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Methods: Using 2015-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, we included participants aged ≥18 years during the same periods prior to (May to October 2015/2016) and after (May to October 2017/2018) the election. Survey-weighted data were analyzed to compare population-level systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) pre- and post-election, stratified by race/ethnicity. Sex differences were also investigated. Results: We observed significant increases in SBP among non-Hispanic (NH) Asian participants (+3.4 mmHg; p = .046), but not among other racial/ethnic participants. DBP increased among NH Black participants (+2.3 mmHg; p = .049) and Mexican American participants (+2.9 mmHg; p = .007), but not among other racial/ethnic participants. These changes appeared attributable to differential BP changes by sex. Conclusions: At the population-level, variable changes in BP were observed by race/ethnicity following the 2016 U.S. presidential election, possibly driven by SBP elevations among women.

Health and Election Outcomes: Evidence from the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election

Article

Jul 2022
POLIT RES QUART

Recent research indicates that political developments and events can have important implications for health. In this study, we use data from a large, nationally representative survey ( N = 1750) fielded in December 2020 to understand how the 2020 Presidential Election impacted self-reported health ratings. Several important findings emerge. First, many Americans report that their mental (14%) and general (6%) health has worsened compared to before the 2020 presidential election; similar number of Americans report improvements to their mental (15%) and general (8%) health. Second, those who voted for Trump and who disagree that Biden won the election are significantly less likely than their counterparts to report better mental, but not general, health compared to before the 2020 election. These relationships persist even in the context of a wide range of controls, including demographics, political predispositions, and perceptions of polarization.

Anticipatory stress during an election: A daily diary study

Article

May 2022

Previous research on election stress has focused on reacting to stressors that already occurred, whereas the forecasting of future stressors and associated responses have been underexamined. Leveraging the 2018 U.S. mid‐term election, we examined anticipatory stress response, operationalised as the within‐person association between daily stressors forecasting and negative affect (NA). We also explore whether such responses might be related to time, partisanship and political orientation. Participants were 125 adults in the U.S. who provided 1056 daily reports in a 29‐day daily diary study surrounding the election. Results indicated that daily forecasts of election stressors contributed to increased NA independent of election stressor exposure. Election stressor forecasting was more pronounced during pre‐election days and the election day than post‐election days, as well as greater in conservatives than liberals. Coping with anticipatory stress may be important for managing election stress.

The effect of presidential election outcomes on alcohol drinking

Article

Mar 2022

The growing political polarization and the increasing use of social media have been linked to straining social ties worldwide. The 2016 presidential elections in the United States reflected this trend with reports of fear and anxiety among voters. We examine how election results can be linked to episodes of anxiety through the use of alcohol as self‐medication. We analyze a daily dataset of household purchases of alcohol in the weeks following presidential elections. We find that, within 30 days from Election Day, a 10 percentage point increase in support for the losing candidate increases alcohol expenditure by 1.1%. The effect is driven by counties with a higher share of supporters of the losing candidate and is robust to controlling more flexibly for omitted variables related to alcohol consumption. The increase in alcohol consumption is present in the 2016 elections and absent in the previous three presidential elections.

Temporal Associations between Character Strengths and Civic Action: A Daily Diary Study

Article

Full-text available

May 2021

Positive youth development (PYD) models propose that character is an important antecedent to civic action, yet few studies have examined temporal links between character strengths and civic behavior. Using a daily diary design, this study tests temporal associations between character and civic behavior during the 2018 US midterm elections. Participants (N=235, Mage=19.43) completed seven daily assessments of three character strengths (purpose, future-mindedness, gratitude) and four types of civic behavior (volunteering/helping behavior, environmentalism, standard political behavior, social movement behavior). There were between-person weekly effects and within-person daily effects for most character strengths, volunteering/helping behavior, and environmentalism. Higher daily purpose was associated with greater daily standard political and social movement involvement. Greater social movement involvement predicted higher next-day purpose and future-mindedness. Greater volunteering/helping behavior predicted higher next-day future-mindedness. Higher purpose predicted greater next-day standard political and social movement involvement. Findings support PYD models by documenting nuanced associations between character and civic action.

Individualized learning potential in stressful times: How to leverage intensive longitudinal data to inform online learning

Article

Mar 2021
COMPUT HUM BEHAV

Societal events – such as natural disasters, political shifts, or economic downturns – are time-varying and impact the learning potential of students in unique ways. These impacts are likely accentuated during the COVID-19 pandemic, which precipitated an abrupt and wholesale transition to online education. Unfortunately, the individual-level consequences of these events are difficult to determine because the extant literature focuses on single-occasion surveys that produce only group-level inferences. To better understand individual-level variability in stress and learning, intensive longitudinal data can be leveraged. The goal of this paper is to illustrate this by discussing three different techniques for the analysis of intensive longitudinal data: (1) regression analyses; (2) multilevel models; and (3) person-specific network models, (e.g., group iterative multiple model estimation; GIMME). For each technique, a brief background in the context of education research is provided, an illustrative analysis is presented using data from college students who completed a 75-day intensive longitudinal study of cognition, somatic symptoms, anxiety, and intellectual interests during the 2016 U.S. Presidential election – a period of heightened sociopolitical stress – and strengths and limitations are considered. The paper ends with recommendations for future research, especially for intensive longitudinal studies of online education during COVID-19.

The Effect of Presidential Election Outcomes on Alcohol Drinking

Article

Jan 2020

Longitudinal Associations between Civic Engagement and Interpersonal Needs during the 2018 US Midterm Elections

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2020

Civic engagement is thought to enhance personal well-being, yet little research has examined links between civic engagement, burdensomeness, and belongingness during periods of heightened civic action. Late adolescent college students (N=235, Mage=19.43) completed daily assessments of civic engagement (community service, environmentalism, standard political behavior, social movement behavior), belongingness, and burdensomeness for one week during the 2018 US midterm elections. Greater daily community service and environmentalism was associated with higher daily belongingness and lower daily burdensomeness. Lower daily belongingness was associated with higher next-day community service. Greater daily standard political and social movement engagement was associated with greater daily burdensomeness. Greater daily social movement engagement was associated with lower daily belongingness. Findings help to advance theory of youth civic development.

No Longer “Beyond our Scope”

Chapter

Oct 2019

Hormones and the Human Alpha Female

Preprint

Full-text available

Jul 2019

Monika K. Sumra

The concept of the alpha female has become widely accepted as a form of female identity in the West. Though relationships between hormone concentrations and alpha-related traits have been demonstrated in alpha nonhuman primates, this has not been examined in the case of the human alpha female. The present study examined the associations of testosterone and cortisol, as well as 3 other hormones, estradiol, oxytocin, and progesterone derived from hair samples, with 11 variables related to the expression of the alpha female identity in a small non-random sample (N=126) of self-identified alpha and non-alpha women in North America. The results revealed statistically significant differences between these groups. When compared to non-alpha women, alpha women scored higher than non-alphas in measures for masculinity, leadership, low introversion, self-esteem, and exhibited lower hair cortisol levels. Alphas exhibited slightly lower estradiol and oxytocin levels than non-alphas though these differences were non-significant. Similar non-significant differences were also found in the case of sexual experience, sexual dominance, testosterone, and progesterone. Though cortisol was not associated with masculine traits, it was positively and significantly associated with leadership. Cortisol was also negatively and significantly associated with strength and a measure for femininity. Progesterone, testosterone, and oxytocin were positively and significantly associated with enjoying sex, as was oxytocin with playing a dominant role in sexual encounters. Surprisingly, testosterone was not associated with alpha status nor with the measure of masculinity, and estradiol was not associated with any of the variables. The results imply that women who identify as alpha may experience less physiological stress than non-alpha females as measured by their lower cortisol levels.

Stress and neurobiology of coping styles

Article

Full-text available

Apr 2017

In stressful environment, animal can use different coping strategies. Passive animals manifest freezing behaviour at predator attacks, active ones are trying to have an impact on a stressful situation. Each coping style is presupposed to have a neurobiological basis and it helps animals to survive in aggressive and mutable environment. Being under a long lasting stress, leaders can be affected by cardiovascular and ulcer diseases, but a short term impact can cheer them up, improve neuroendocrine stress response more than passive coping style in animals. This paper analyzes animal pattern of coping behaviour, their inheritance based on gender, social status and age. The research shows how anxiety affects social behaviour of people individuals and typological reactions were compared. These patterns can be used by people in a situation of uncontrolled stress to prevent diseases and depressive disorders through altering one’s type of behavior to the one which is more effective. In addition, knowledge of behavioural types can assist teachers in implementing the learning process as in stress situations (e.g. taking exams, working on course papers, doing tests) not all students are able to effectively perceive and present the resulting material. On the other hand, active students could encourage short-term rather than long-term stressor irritation. It is necessary to pay special attention to students with low social economic status who display active response to stress. According to statistics, problem students often become aggressors and commit antisocial and sometimes criminal acts. The coping styles mentioned here above are not polar, there are no clear boundaries of personality. In addition, behaving according to the active / non-active type is identified by customary and inherited behaviour patterns.

Physiological Politics: Stress and Dominance Responses to Political News

Article

May 2012

Erin Strauts

Candidate Vulnerability and Exposure to Counterattitudinal Information: Evidence From Two U.S. Presidential Elections: Candidate Vulnerability and Counterattitudinal Information

Article

Jul 2016

Politically motivated selective exposure has traditionally been understood through the lens of long-standing attitudes and beliefs, but the role of environment in shaping information exposure practices merits further consideration. Citizens might respond to the political environment in their information-seeking behavior for numerous reasons. Citizens who believe their position is politically vulnerable have specific cognitive and affective needs that may make them uniquely attuned to counterattitudinal information. In the context of a presidential election, this means that as the defeat of a supported candidate appears more likely, attention to counterattitudinal content will increase. Data collected in the 2008 and 2012 U.S. Presidential elections support this prediction, although this relationship was observed primarily among supporters of the Republican candidate in both elections.

Negativity bias and political preferences: A response to commentators Response

Article

Jun 2014
BEHAV BRAIN SCI

A broad, multidisciplinary empirical literature reports that individual-level differences in psychology and biology map onto variation in political orientation. In our target article we argued that negativity bias can explain a surprisingly large share of these findings. The commentators generally support the negativity bias hypothesis but suggest theoretical and empirical revisions and refinements. In this response, we organize these proposals, suggestions, and criticisms into four thematic categories and assess their potential for furthering theories and empirical investigations of the bases for individual-variation in political ideology.

Assessment of salivary hormones

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2009

Hormonal responses to competition

Article

Full-text available

Aug 2000
PSICOTHEMA

Respuesta hormonal a la competición. Las competiciones deportivas han sido utilizadas para analizar la influencia de enfrentamientos sociales sobre los niveles hormonales. Sin embargo, los resultados han sido inconsistentes. Diversas variables como el resultado, el esfuerzo físico, el estado de ánimo y la atribucin causal han sido consideradas como importantes mediadores de dicha influencia. Nuestro objetivo fue examinar su papel en la respuesta de la testosterona y del cortisol en un enfrentamiento real. Para ello, doce judokas que participaban en una competición real entre clubs, fueron estudiados. Los resultados no mostraron diferencias significativas en función del resultado en los niveles hormonales, esfuerzo físico, estado de ánimo ni en la atribución causal; únicamente la satisfacción con el resultado fue significativa. Interesantemente, la respuesta de la testosterona fue positivamente asociada con la autosatisfacción (self-appraisal) de la ejecución y la atribución del resultado al esfuerzo personal. El cortisol mostró una relación consistente con el estado de ánimo negativo. Estos resultados apoyan una clara asociación de las respuestas hormonales inducidas por la competición con aspectos cognitivos y emocionales más que con características objetivas de la situación (resultado o esfuerzo físico).

Social stress in rats and mice

Article

Full-text available

Feb 1997
Acta Physiol Scand Suppl

This paper summarizes some of the highlights of our current social stress research in rodents as it was inspired by the work of Jim Henry. First, it is argued that social defeat can be considered as one of the most severe stressors among a number of laboratory stressful stimuli in terms of neuroendocrine activation. Moreover, the stress response induced by defeat in particular is characterized by a strong sympathetic dominance. Depending on the stress parameter, the stress response induced by a single social defeat may last from hours to days and weeks. As a long term consequence of a single defeat experience, the animal becomes sensitized to subsequent minor stressors. Finally, the importance of individual differences in coping style in relation to stress vulnerability is discussed.

Testosterone Changes During Vicarious Experiences of Winning and Losing Among Fans at Sporting Events

Article

Full-text available

Sep 1998
PHYSIOL BEHAV

Basking in reflected glory, in which individuals increase their self-esteem by identifying with successful others, is usually regarded as a cognitive process that can affect behavior. It may also involve physiological processes, including changes in the production of endocrine hormones. The present research involved two studies of changes in testosterone levels among fans watching their favorite sports teams win or lose. In the first study, participants were eight male fans attending a basketball game between traditional college rivals. In the second study, participants were 21 male fans watching a televised World Cup soccer match between traditional international rivals. Participants provided saliva samples for testosterone assay before and after the contest. In both studies, mean testosterone level increased in the fans of winning teams and decreased in the fans of losing teams. These findings suggest that watching one's heroes win or lose has physiological consequences that extend beyond changes in mood and self-esteem.

Saliva Cortisol, Testosterone and T/C Ratio Variations During a Wrestling Competition and During the Post-Competitive Recovery Period

Article

Full-text available

Feb 1999

Unlabelled: This study presents saliva cortisol (C) and testosterone (T) levels in a group of 15 young wrestlers (national and international) during a two-days competition. Values are compared to references established on a resting day (3 weeks before the competition). Post-competition recovery was studied by recording evening hormonal levels (5.30 pm) for 8 days. Results: C levels increased sharply (about 2.5 fold resting levels) throughout the competition with no further changes in T levels. The rise in C appeared before entering the competition, traducing a striking phenomenon of anticipation. At the end of the competition, C levels fell very quickly (within 1.5 h) to basal value when T rose significantly, resulting in a very high T/C ratio. During the recovery period, C levels corresponded to basal ones and T remained high, resulting in a high T/C ratio (>30% than basal one) till the 5th day. Conclusion: Competition resulted in a low T/C ratio, considered as a catabolic phase. The recovery which is associated with a feeling of tiredness and an incapacity to train strenuously recognized by the trainers, paradoxically corresponded to a high T/C ratio (so-called anabolic phase).

Effects of competition and its outcome on serum testosterone, cortisol and prolactin

Article

Full-text available

Aug 1999
PSYCHONEUROENDOCRINO

In various species, competitive encounters influence hormonal responses in a different way depending on their outcome, victory or defeat. This study aimed to investigate the effects of sports competition and its outcome on hormonal response, comparing it with those displayed in situations involving non-effort and non-competitive effort. To this end, serum testosterone (T), cortisol (C) and prolactin (PRL) were measured in 26 judoists who participated in three sessions (control, judo fight and ergometry). The relationship between hormonal changes and psychological variables before and after the fight were also analysed. Our results showed a hormonal response to competition, which was especially characterized by an anticipatory rise of T and C. Depending on outcome, significant higher C levels were found in winners in comparison to losers through all the competition but not in T or PRL, both groups expending a similar physical effort. Furthermore, similar hormonal responses to the fight and to a non-competitive effort with the same caloric cost were found, other than with PRL. Winners showed a higher appraisal of their performance and satisfaction with the outcome, and perceived themselves as having more ability to win than losers, although there were no significant differences in motivation to win. Finally, the relationships found between T changes in competition and motivation to win, as well as between C response and self-efficacy suggest that in humans hormonal response to competition is not a direct consequence of winning and losing but rather is mediated by complex psychological processes.

How Do Glucocorticoids Influence Stress Responses? Integrating Permissive, Suppressive, Stimulatory, and Preparative Actions

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2000

The secretion of glucocorticoids (GCs) is a classic endocrine response to stress. Despite that, it remains controversial as to what purpose GCs serve at such times. One view, stretching back to the time of Hans Selye, posits that GCs help mediate the ongoing or pending stress response, either via basal levels of GCs permitting other facets of the stress response to emerge efficaciously, and/or by stress levels of GCs actively stimulating the stress response. In contrast, a revisionist viewpoint posits that GCs suppress the stress response, preventing it from being pathologically overactivated. In this review, we consider recent findings regarding GC action and, based on them, generate criteria for determining whether a particular GC action permits, stimulates, or suppresses an ongoing stress-response or, as an additional category, is preparative for a subsequent stressor. We apply these GC actions to the realms of cardiovascular function, fluid volume and hemorrhage, immunity and inflammation, metabolism, neurobiology, and reproductive physiology. We find that GC actions fall into markedly different categories, depending on the physiological endpoint in question, with evidence for mediating effects in some cases, and suppressive or preparative in others. We then attempt to assimilate these heterogeneous GC actions into a physiological whole.

Acute Stressors and Cortisol Responses: A Theoretical Integration and Synthesis of Laboratory Research

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2004

This meta-analysis reviews 208 laboratory studies of acute psychological stressors and tests a theoretical model delineating conditions capable of eliciting cortisol responses. Psychological stressors increased cortisol levels; however, effects varied widely across tasks. Consistent with the theoretical model, motivated performance tasks elicited cortisol responses if they were uncontrollable or characterized by social-evaluative threat (task performance could be negatively judged by others), when methodological factors and other stressor characteristics were controlled for. Tasks containing both uncontrollable and social-evaluative elements were associated with the largest cortisol and adrenocorticotropin hormone changes and the longest times to recovery. These findings are consistent with the animal literature on the physiological effects of uncontrollable social threat and contradict the belief that cortisol is responsive to all types of stressors.

Social stress: From rodents to primates

Article

Full-text available

May 2005

Social stress is associated with development of many psychological and physiological disturbances in humans. Animal models are needed to determine the etiology of these diseases and to develop rational clinical therapies to treat those afflicted. Rodent and non-human primate models of social stress have been developed to address these needs and contribute in complementary ways to the understanding of social stress. In this review, we provide an overview of common rodent and non-human primate models of social stress used in the laboratory with a focus on social hierarchy models. The implications of the current findings on understanding of the development of stress-related disease will also be discussed.

Changes in salivary physiological stress markers associated with winning and losing

Article

Full-text available

Mar 2008
BIOMED RES-TOKYO

Using a representative table game popular in Japan known as shogi, or Japanese chess, we investigated the effects of winning and losing on saliva composition. The subjects were 90 healthy male university students who were members of a shogi club. Saliva samples were collected immediately before and after playing shogi, and again 30 min later. Salivary cortisol and testosterone levels in the samples were determined by ELISA and EIA, respectively. After finishing each game, the competitiveness of the game was evaluated using questionnaires. In the samples taken after playing shogi, there was an increase in the levels of salivary testosterone and cortisol, regardless of whether the subject won or lost, and the tendency was more pronounced in competitive games. There were no such changes in the control group, who did not play a game prior to providing the samples. Our results suggest that stress response is intimately linked with competition and could be used to determine which players are more capable of handing stress in a competitive environment.

How Do Glucocorticoids Influence Stress Responses? Integrating Permissive, Suppressive, Stimulatory, and Preparative Actions

Article

Feb 2000

R. M. Sapolsky

The Authoritarian Specter

Book

Jan 1996
REV FR SOCIOL

Bob Altemeyer

This book shows that many ordinary people today are highly susceptible to hate literature and are psychologically disposed to embrace antidemocratic, facist policies. Many of our biggest problems, seemingly unrelated, are found to have common authoritarian roots. This book gives insight into how authoritarian minds are created and how they operate, and how their failings and vulnerabilities produce submission and aggression. A search for authoritarians on the left finds very few. Instead, studies reveal a strong concentration of authoritarians among religious fundamentalists and conservative politicians. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)(jacket)

Testosterone, cortisol, and women's competition

Article

May 2002
EVOL HUM BEHAV

Hormone (testosterone, cortisol)–behavior relationships have been extensively studied among male competitors, and far less so among female competitors. To address this gap, we studied members of a nationally recognized college women's rugby team. Seventeen players (ages 18–22 years) provided saliva samples 24 h before, 20 min prior to, and immediately after five league matches. Subjects self-reported aggressiveness, team bonding, pregame mental state, postgame performance evaluation, and whether the opponent was more or less challenging than expected. Results revealed that both testosterone and cortisol levels increased in anticipation of the matches. Postgame levels of both hormones were higher than pregame levels. The pregame rise in testosterone was associated with team bonding, aggressiveness, and being focused, but was unrelated to perceptions of the opponent's skill. Testosterone change during the game was unrelated to winning or losing, evaluations of personal performance, or perceptions of the opponent's threat. Game changes in cortisol were positively related to player evaluations of whether the opponent was more of a challenge than expected, and negatively related to losing. These results are compared with hormone–behavior patterns found among male competitors and are interpreted within a recent theory of sex differences in response to challenges.

Psychophysiological stress in tennis players during the first single match of a tournament

Article

Jan 2009

The purpose of this investigation was to study the physiological and psychological states of 16 tennis players (8 males, 8 females) during the day of the first match of a tennis tournament and their relation to performance. Athletes completed the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2, including both intensity and direction subscales prior to the first match and collected saliva for cortisol analysis on several occasions: during a resting day (baseline values) and prior to and after both competitions. Results showed the males and females have different responses in the CSAI-2 subcomponents. Somatic anxiety was significantly higher (+23%: p < .05) in females compared to males whereas self-confidence was significantly higher in males (+34%: p < .05). Winners had significantly lower cognitive anxiety and higher Self-confidence scores than losers. Somatic anxiety was significantly higher in the losers. Our results showed a cortisol response to competition, which was especially characterized by an anticipatory rise. Males had the same pattern of cortisol responses than females, even if the cortisol concentrations were significantly higher in females the day of the competition. According to the outcome, significant differences between winners and losers cortisol concentrations were observed whatever the hour of taking (except in the evening), cortisol concentrations being the highest at the loser’s. The measurement of cortisol at the same time that self-report psychological indicators would provide an approach to examine changes in anxiety, and its relationship to performance

Anxiety, hormonal responses and coping during judo competition

Article

Jan 2001
AGGRESSIVE BEHAV

Competitive situations induced hormonal changes, depending on the outcome, victory or defeat. This study aimed to investigate the salivary testosterone (T) and cortisol (C) and the mental state responses to a real judo championship. Data about individuals’ anxiety levels, strategies of coping, and patterns of behavior were thus collected. The relationship between hormonal changes and psychological variables were also analyzed. Our results showed a C response to competition, which was especially characterized by an anticipatory rise. Depending on outcome, results did not show statistically significant different C responses. The T values noted after the last fight were significantly greater in the losers than those obtained in the winners. Hormonal response did not show a relationship with psychological variables depending on the outcome. Losers showed just before the first fight an elevated cognitive anxiety, accompanied by low self-confidence. Moreover, they were characterized by type B behavior. Types of coping strategies also differentiated losers from winners. Finally, even if no relationships between hormonal and psychological variables depending on the outcome were found, our results showed that state and trait psychological variables, as well as the coping strategies, must be taken into account to better understand the response to competitive situations. Aggr. Behav. 27:55–63, 2001. © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Serum cortisol, testosterone, and testosterone-binding globulin responses to competitive fighting in human males

Article

Jan 1981

Michael Ramiz Elias

Levels of circulating cortisol, testosterone, and testosterone-binding globulin were measured in 15 male wrestlers (18–22 yrs of age) in relation to wrestling bouts and their outcomes. Concentrations of cortisol and testosterone increased consistently during wrestling bouts, while levels of testosterone-binding globulin dropped. Winners of competitive matches showed greater increases in both cortisol and testosterone than did losers. Findings indicate that humans, like other social mammals, may undergo specific endocrine changes in response to victory or defeat. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Right‐Wing Authoritarianism in Relation to Proposed Judicial Action, Electromyographic Response, and Affective Attitudes Toward a Schizophrenic Mother

Article

Dec 2007
J APPL SOC PSYCHOL

Student participants who were high vs. low on Altemeyer's (1996) Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) scale read background information and observed a videotaped interview concerning a schizophrenic woman who ostensibly killed her 2 young children in response to what she perceived as divine command. The woman now was functioning normally in response to medical treatment. High RWAs recommended harsher sentencing and expressed less sympathy than did low RWAs. High RWAs also evinced more facial electromyographic activity from the corrugator brow (i.e., frown) muscle while observing the interview than did low RWAs and gave the woman lower ratings on the Affective Attitudes Scale (Crites, Fabrigar, & Petty, 1994).

Testosterone and cortisol responses to competitive fighting in human males: A pilot study

Article

Jan 1987
AGGRESSIVE BEHAV

Serum testosterone and cortisol levels were measured by radioimmunoassay in 14 young male judo competitors, in samples taken 10 minutes before and 45 minutes after two different procedures. The first involved physical exercise and the second competitive fighting. Both procedures were of 5 minutes duration and sessions took place at the same time (between 10:00 A.M. and 12:00 P.M. local time) but on different days. Comparing the two situations over all subjects revealed that testosterone increased after exercise and decreased slightly after Competition. Between subject comparisons suggested that contrary to previous claims, winning or losing did not significantly change the testosterone and cortisol levels. Comparisons of subjects who were members of the Regional Team with individuals who were not part of that group confirmed that members increased their testosterone levels after competition, whereas the nonmembers showed a significant decrease. Moreover, success of the individuals, in their sporting record, correlated positively and significantly with the changes of testosterone observed during the competition. These preliminary results suggest that previous personal experience of success can influence the pattern of the psychoendocrine response to a contest situation.

Sociobiology: The New Synthesis

Book

Jan 1975

Edward O. Wilson

Sex Difference in Testosterone Response to a Video Game Contest

Article

Sep 1997
EVOL HUM BEHAV

Testosterone (T) and cortisol (C) were assayed from saliva samples given by young men (n = 28) and women (n = 32) before, during, and after competing with a same-sex partner in a video game. The T response to the competition is different in each sex; the C response is the same. Male results confirm prior reports of a pre-contest rise in testosterone. Male results did not confirm previous findings that after a contest, the testosterone of winners is higher than that of losers, perhaps because the video game contest produced little mood difference between male winners and losers. Unlike male testosterone, female testosterone generally decreased throughout the experiment. Trends in T and C are parallel in women but not in men. Apparently T works differently in competition between men than between women.

Stressor paradigms in developmental studies: What does and does not work to produce mean increases in salivary cortisol

Article

Apr 2009

The stress response system is comprised of an intricate interconnected network that includes the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis. The HPA axis maintains the organism's capacity to respond to acute and prolonged stressors and is a focus of research on the sequelae of stress. Human studies of the HPA system have been facilitated enormously by the development of salivary assays which measure cortisol, the steroid end-product of the HPA axis. The use of salivary cortisol is prevalent in child development stress research. However, in order to measure children's acute cortisol reactivity to circumscribed stressors, researchers must put children in stressful situations which produce elevated levels of cortisol. Unfortunately, many studies on the cortisol stress response in children use paradigms that fail to produce mean elevations in cortisol. This paper reviews stressor paradigms used with infants, children, and adolescents to guide researchers in selecting effective stressor tasks. A number of different types of stressor paradigms were examined, including: public speaking, negative emotion, relationship disruption/threatening, novelty, handling, and mild pain paradigms. With development, marked changes are evident in the effectiveness of the same stressor paradigm to provoke elevations in cortisol. Several factors appear to be critical in determining whether a stressor paradigm is successful, including the availability of coping resources and the extent to which, in older children, the task threatens the social self. A consideration of these issues is needed to promote the implementation of more effective stressor paradigms in human developmental psychoendocrine research.

Testosterone responsiveness to winning and losing experiences in female soccer players

Article

Apr 2009

In many animal species including humans circulating androgen levels in males respond to social challenges. This response has been interpreted as an adaptive mechanism that helps the individuals to adjust their behavior to changes in social context. According to this hypothesis socially modulated androgen levels (e.g. increased levels in dominants and decreased levels in subordinates) would influence the subsequent expression of social behavior in a status-dependent fashion. This rationale is partially based on male physiology and therefore has been rarely investigated in females. Here, we investigated if a hormonal response to a social challenge that produces changes in status is also present in human females. We have collected saliva from and administered questionnaires to female soccer players of both teams playing the final match of the Portuguese Female soccer league. Samples were collected on a neutral day and on the day of the game both before and after the match. The change in testosterone levels (i.e. post-game-pre-game values=Delta(T)) was positive in the winners and negative in the losers and there was a significant difference in the testosterone change (i.e. Delta(T)) over the game between winners and losers. Cortisol levels did not vary with contest outcome. An anticipatory rise in circulating levels of both hormones (testosterone and cortisol) was detected before the match. Paralleling the hormonal responses, changes in mood and anxiety state were also found between both teams, with more positive states being observed in winners and more negative states being observed in losers at the end of the match. These results suggest that testosterone also responds to social challenges in human females and that contest-induced mood changes may influence this response.

Coping with competition: Neuroendocrine responses and cognitive variables

Article

Oct 2008
NEUROSCI BIOBEHAV R

Confronting another individual or group motivated by the same goal is a very frequent situation in human communities that occurs in many other species. Competitive interactions emerge as critical situations that shed light on the effects and consequences of social stress on health. But more important than the situation itself is the way it is interpreted by the subject. This "appraisal" involves cognitive processes that contribute to explaining the neuroendocrine response to these interactions, helping to understanding the vulnerability or resistance to their effects. In this review, we defend the need to study human competition within the social stress framework, while maintaining an evolutionary perspective, and taking advantage of the theoretical and methodological advances in psychology and psychophysiology in order to better understand the cognitive processes underlying the social stress response in humans.

Salivary testosterone measurements: Collecting, storing, and mailing saliva samples

Article

May 1991
PHYSIOL BEHAV

James M. Dabbs

Salivary testosterone measurements can be especially useful in field studies, but reliable ways of collecting and handling samples need to be established. Using cotton dental rolls to collect saliva leads to inflated testosterone scores. Sugarfree gum can be used satisfactorily to stimulate saliva among both male and female subjects. Leaving unpreserved saliva samples at room temperature for 2 weeks or mailing them unrefrigerated is satisfactory for male subjects but leads to inflated scores for female subjects.

Testosterone, and winning and losing in human competition

Article

Jan 1990

Testosterone and cortisol were measured in six university tennis players across six matches during their varsity season. Testosterone rose just before most matches, and players with the highest prematch testosterone had the most positive improvement in mood before their matches. After matches, mean testosterone rose for winners relative to losers, especially for winners with very positive moods after their victories and who evaluated their own performance highly. Winners with rising testosterone had higher testosterone before their next match, in contrast to losers with falling testosterone, who had lower testosterone before their next match. Cortisol was not related to winning or losing, but it was related to seed (top players having low cortisol), and cortisol generally declined as the season progressed. These results are consistent with a biosocial theory of status.

Androgen Responses during Physical Exercise

Article

Apr 1973
Br Med J

The serum androgen response to physical exercise was studied in highly trained athletes and in normal male medical students. Serum androgens rose in response to maximal exercise and the rise was independent of serum luteinizing hormone. No response was obtained with submaximal exercise.

Effect of exercise on adrenocortical function

Article

Jan 1974
J Appl Physiol

Ten subjects exercised on a motor driven treadmill at work loads varying from 36 to 90% of their maximum aerobic power (VO2max). Plasma cortisol (F), cardiac frequency (fH), tympanic temperature (Tty), and oxygen intake (VO2) were measured during rest, exercise, and recovery periods. At the highest work load that could be maintained for 1 hr (65% to 90% VO2max) a rise in F was found of the order of 7.02±4.88 μg/100 ml (P<0.001; and a further increase (3.62 μg/100 ml) of F was observed during the first 10 min of recovery. At lower work loads, the response of F to 1 hr of exercise was variable but analysis of all the data suggests that at work levels below 50% of VO2max F usually decreased (3.74±2.27 μg/100 ml; P<0.05) and that before F began to rise a critical level of about 60% of the subject's VO2max had to be exceeded. The Tty corresponding to this work load was 37.2±0.13°C. Cortisol [1,2 3H](10 μCi) was administered to 2 subjects 30 min before a 1 hr period of exercise at 77 and 85% VO2max, respectively. The specific activity of their F continued to decline during exercise showing that the increase in F observed was due mainly to an increase in the rate of secretion and not to a decrease in the rate of removal of cortisol from the plasma. During the recovery period the specific activity of F remained nearly constant indicating the probable cessation of F secretion.

Testosterone, Cortisol, and Mood in a Sports Team Competition

Article

Mar 1999

In humans, hormonal responses to winning/losing and their relationships to mood and status change have mostly been examined in individual athletic competitions. In this study, the salivary testosterone (T) and cortisol (C) and mood responses to a real match between two professional basketball teams were investigated. Data about individuals' contributions to outcome, performance appraisal, and attribution of outcome to internal/external factors were also collected. Results did not show statistically significant different T and C responses depending on the outcome. Negative mood was significantly enhanced, especially in the losers, while winners showed a better appraisal of team performance and a more internal attribution. T response did not show a significant relationship with mood changes, but it correlated positively with the "score/time playing" ratio, an indicator of individual participation in the outcome. Furthermore, T response correlated negatively with external attribution in winners and positively in losers. These results indicate that in a real, highly competitive situation, T changes are not directly a response to the outcome, but rather to the contribution the individual makes to it and to the causes he attributes.

Facilitation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal responses to novel stress following repeated social stress using the resident/intruder paradigm

Article

Feb 2003

Our goal in these studies was to characterize some specific aspects of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activity in rats exposed to repeated social stress. We used a modification of the resident/intruder paradigm in which male intruder rats were subjected to defeat and then separated from the resident by an enclosure for a total of 30 min on Day 1. On Days 2-7, intruder rats were exposed to different resident rats every day through a wire mesh enclosure for 30 min in order to minimize injurious physical contact between the two rats. The intruder rats gained significantly less weight than controls over the 7-day period of stress though basal corticosterone levels and adrenal and thymus weights were not significantly different between the two groups. On Day 8, repeatedly stressed rats exhibited facilitation of HPA responses to novel restraint compared to controls but no differences in negative feedback sensitivity to dexamethasone (0.05 or 0.2 mg/kg) were observed. Thus, the HPA axis of socially stressed rats remains responsive to a stimulus that has never been encountered. Using this type of repeated presentation to an aggressive resident allows us to examine the neuroendocrine and behavioral consequences, and their underlying neural mechanisms, of exposure to a stressor that is social in nature and naturalistic for rodents.

Are Subordinates Always Stressed? A Comparative Analysis of Rank Differences in Cortisol Levels Among Primates

Article

Feb 2003

Among primate species there is pronounced variation in the relationship between social status and measures of stress physiology. An informal meta-analysis was designed to investigate the basis of this diversity across different primate societies. Species were included only if a substantial amount of published information was available regarding both social behavior and rank-related differences in stress physiology. Four Old World and three New World species met these criteria, including societies varying from small-group, singular cooperative breeders (common marmoset and cotton top tamarin) to large-troop, multi-male, multi-female polygynous mating systems (rhesus, cynomolgus, talapoin, squirrel monkeys, and olive baboon). A questionnaire was formulated to obtain information necessary to characterize the stress milieu for individuals in particular primate societies. We standardized cortisol values within each species by calculating the ratio of basal cortisol concentrations of subordinates to those of dominants in stable dominance hierarchies and expressing the ratio as a percentage (relative cortisol levels). The meta-analysis identified two variables that significantly predicted relative cortisol levels: subordinates exhibited higher relative cortisol levels when they (1). were subjected to higher rates of stressors, and (2). experienced decreased opportunities for social (including close kin) support. These findings have important implications for understanding the different physiological consequences of dominant and subordinate social status across primate societies and how social rank may differ in its behavioral and physiological manifestations among primate societies.

Highly Dominating, Highly Authoritarian Personalities

Article

Sep 2004

Bob Altemeyer

The author considered the small part of the population whose members score highly on both the Social Dominance Orientation scale and the Right-Wing Authoritarianism scale. Studies of these High SDO-High RWAs, culled from samples of nearly 4000 Canadian university students and over 2600 of their parents and reported in the present article, reveal that these dominating authoritarians are among the most prejudiced persons in society. Furthermore, they seem to combine the worst elements of each kind of personality, being power-hungry, unsupportive of equality, manipulative, and amoral, as social dominators are in general, while also being religiously ethnocentric and dogmatic, as right-wing authoritarians tend to be. The author suggested that, although they are small in number, such persons can have considerable impact on society because they are well-positioned to become the leaders of prejudiced right-wing political movements.

Gender Differences in Testosterone and Cortisol Response to Competition

Article

Feb 2005
PSYCHONEUROENDOCRINO

This study examined intra-individual change in testosterone, cortisol, and hormone-behavior relationships in response to a rowing ergometer competition. Forty-six members (23 females) of a university crew team provided saliva samples before, 20- and 40-min post-competition, as well as baselines on a non-competition day. Behavioral assessments included measures of previous rowing experience, dominance, competitiveness, bonding with teammates, pre- and post-competition mental state and performance. Men's and women's endocrine responses to this competitive setting were more different than alike and varied by level of competitive experience, the specific phase of the competitive event, and the particular hormone measured. Inter-individual differences in testosterone and cortisol were differentially associated with social affiliation with teammates but rarely with dominance or competitiveness. Theoretically, the findings support the integration of features of the 'tend and befriend' model with the biosocial model of status, and suggest future research directions that may lead to clarification and refinement of those ideas.

The Influence of Social Hierarchy on Primate Health

Article

May 2005
SCIENCE

Robert Sapolsky

Dominance hierarchies occur in numerous social species, and rank within them can greatly influence the quality of life of an animal. In this review, I consider how rank can also influence physiology and health. I first consider whether it is high- or low-ranking animals that are most stressed in a dominance hierarchy; this turns out to vary as a function of the social organization in different species and populations. I then review how the stressful characteristics of social rank have adverse adrenocortical, cardiovascular, reproductive, immunological, and neurobiological consequences. Finally, I consider how these findings apply to the human realm of health, disease, and socioeconomic status.

Intercollegiate soccer: Saliva cortisol and testosterone are elevated during competition, and testosterone is related to status and social connectedness with teammates

Article

Feb 2006
PHYSIOL BEHAV

Men and women from a southern university's intercollegiate varsity soccer teams gave saliva samples before and after league matches. For the men, samples were collected for a single game ending in victory. For the women, samples were collected for two games, one of which ended in victory and the other in defeat. For both men and women, match competition substantially increased saliva cortisol (C) and testosterone (T). For women, play-related increases in saliva C and T were similar in victory and defeat. For both men and women, saliva T (but not C) was highly correlated with teammate ratings of playing abilities--one measure of status with teammates--and self-ratings of social connectedness with teammates, but the nature of the relationship was different according to sex. For men, play-related changes in T were positively correlated with these variables, but before-game T was not. For women, before-game T was positively related to each of these variables, but play-related changes in T were not. Status and social connectedness are pertinent to understanding interpersonal dynamics in most social groups, and these results--which link T and these variables in an athletic context--may have relevance for understanding social relationships in other settings.

The End of the End of Ideology

Article

Nov 2006

John T Jost

The "end of ideology" was declared by social scientists in the aftermath of World War II. They argued that (a) ordinary citizens' political attitudes lack the kind of stability, consistency, and constraint that ideology requires; (b) ideological constructs such as liberalism and conservatism lack motivational potency and behavioral significance; (c) there are no major differences in content (or substance) between liberal and conservative points of view; and (d) there are few important differences in psychological processes (or styles) that underlie liberal versus conservative orientations. The end-of-ideologists were so influential that researchers ignored the topic of ideology for many years. However, current political realities, recent data from the American National Election Studies, and results from an emerging psychological paradigm provide strong grounds for returning to the study of ideology. Studies reveal that there are indeed meaningful political and psychological differences that covary with ideological self-placement. Situational variables--including system threat and mortality salience--and dispositional variables--including openness and conscientiousness--affect the degree to which an individual is drawn to liberal versus conservative leaders, parties, and opinions. A psychological analysis is also useful for understanding the political divide between "red states" and "blue states."

Sociobiology: The New Synthesis Harvard Uni-versity Press Endocrine + Models PNEC-1716; No of Pages 7 Please cite this articleinpress as: Stressfulpolitics:Voters’cortisol responses to the outcomeof the 2008UnitedStates Presidential election

E O Wilson
S J Stanton

Wilson, E.O., 1975. Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. Harvard Uni-versity Press, Cambridge, MA. Endocrine + Models PNEC-1716; No of Pages 7 Please cite this articleinpress as: Stanton, S.J.,et al., Stressfulpolitics:Voters’cortisol responses to the outcomeof the 2008UnitedStates Presidential election. Psychoneuroendocrinology (2009), doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2009.10.018 Cortisol and the election7

McCain abandons his efforts to win Michigan

Nov 2008

M Cooper

Cooper, M., 2008, October. McCain abandons his efforts to win Michigan. New York Times, Retrieved April 23, 2009, from:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/us/politics/ 03michigan.html.

Hormonal responses to competition Effects of competition and its outcome on serum testosterone, cortisol and prolactin Androgen responses during physical exercise Social stress: from rodents to primates

Jan 1973
440-444

M A Serrano
A Salvador
E Gonzalez-Bono
C Sanchis
F Suay
F Suay
A Salvador
E Gonzalez-Bono
C Sanchos
M Martí
S Martí-Sanchis
V M Simon
J B Montoro

Serrano, M.A., Salvador, A., Gonzalez-Bono, E., Sanchis, C., Suay, F., 2000. Hormonal responses to competition. Psicothema 12, 440— 444. Suay, F., Salvador, A., Gonzalez-Bono, E., Sanchos, C., Martí, M., Martí-Sanchis, S., Simon, V.M., Montoro, J.B., 1999. Effects of competition and its outcome on serum testosterone, cortisol and prolactin. Psychoneuroendocrinology 24, 551—566. Sutton, J.R., Coleman, M.J., Casey, J., Lazarus, L., 1973. Androgen responses during physical exercise. British Medical Journal 1, 520—522. Tamashiro, K.L.K., Nguyen, M.M.N., Sakai, R.R., 2005. Social stress: from rodents to primates. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology 26, 27—40.

The 20-item RWA Scale. Unpublished Manuscript

B Altemeyer

Altemeyer, B., 1998. The 20-item RWA Scale. Unpublished Manuscript, University of Manitoba.

Anxiety, hormonal responses, and coping during a judo competition

Jan 2001
55

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Stressful politics: Voters' cortisol responses to the outcome of the 2008 United States Presidential election

Abstract

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