title: The social dimension of stress reactivity: acute stress increases prosocial behavior in humans.
abstract: Psychosocial stress precipitates a wide spectrum of diseases with major public-health significance. The fight-or-flight response is generally regarded as the prototypic human stress response, both physiologically and behaviorally. Given that having positive social interactions before being exposed to acute stress plays a preeminent role in helping individuals control their stress response, engaging in prosocial behavior in response to stress (tend-and-befriend) might also be a protective pattern. Little is known, however, about the immediate social responses following stress in humans. Here we show that participants who experienced acute social stress, induced by a standardized laboratory stressor, engaged in substantially more prosocial behavior (trust, trustworthiness, and sharing) compared with participants in a control condition, who did not experience socioevaluative threat. These effects were highly specific: Stress did not affect the readiness to exhibit antisocial behavior or to bear nonsocial risks. These results show that stress triggers social approach behavior, which operates as a potent stress-buffering strategy in humans, thereby providing evidence for the tend-and-befriend hypothesis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Laboratory for Biological and Personality Psychology, University of Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Bernadette
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: von Dawans
authors.forename: Urs
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Fischbacher
authors.forename: Clemens
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kirschbaum
authors.forename: Ernst
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fehr
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Heinrichs
mesh_terms: D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005717:Games, Experimental; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000032:analysis; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D035502:Trust / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D006854:Hydrocortisone