title: Effects of two dominance manipulations on the stress response: Cognitive and embodied influences.
abstract: In response to stress, physiological and mental resources are allocated towards those systems that are needed for rapid responding in terms of fight or flight. On the other hand, long term regenerative processes such as growth, digestion and reproduction are attenuated. Levels of the sex steroid testosterone are reduced in participants that suffer from chronic stress. However, beyond its role for reproductive functions, testosterone plays an important role in the regulation of social status and dominance, testosterone levels increase during competition or when the social status is challenged. The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), a laboratory stressor with a substantial social-evaluative component, can provoke an increase in salivary testosterone levels. Still, so far the reported findings regarding acute stress effects on testosterone are equivocal, possibly due to moderating effects. In this study we experimentally manipulated social dominance in 56 healthy participants (28m) by two independent manipulations (body posture and cognitive role taking) and subjected them to the TSST. We analyzed salivary testosterone and cortisol levels as dependent measures for the endocrine stress response. The role taking manipulation interacted with the testosterone response: we found the strongest increase when participants had to put themselves in a dominant (vs. submissive) role. Our results suggest that transient changes in testosterone levels during stress reflect a response to status threat that is affected by social dominance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité University Medicine, Hindenburgdamm 30, 12203 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: christian.deuter@charite.de.
authors.forename: Christian Eric
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Deuter
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychophysiology, University of Trier, Trier, Germany.
authors.forename: Hartmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schächinger
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychophysiology, University of Trier, Trier, Germany.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Best
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Trier, Trier, Germany.
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Neumann
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012463:Saliva / Q000737:chemistry; D012930:Social Dominance; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D013739:Testosterone / Q000032:analysis; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D013739:Testosterone
keywords: Cortisol; Social dominance; Stress response; Testosterone; Trier Social Stress Test