title: Do women tend while men fight or flee? Differential emotive reactions of stressed men and women while viewing newborn infants.
abstract: Infant care often is carried out under stressful circumstances. Little is known about differences in caretaking motivation between men and women under stress. In the present study, stress was induced in 40 participants (21 women, 19 men) by means of the cold pressor stress test, 40 (22 women, 18 men) serving as controls. Participants then rated their urge to care for newborn infants shown on 20 short video clips. The infants in the videos were either crying (N=10) or were showing typical neonatal facial movements (N=10). Skin conductance was obtained while participants viewed the videos and salivary cortisol was measured to capture stress responses. We found sex differences in caretaking motivation, such that stress led to decreased caretaking motivation in men but not in women. Furthermore, stressed men elicited a stronger skin conductance change while viewing infant videos than stressed women. These findings provide further evidence for differential stress reactions in men and women and may have crucial implications for parental care.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Switzerland; Center for Cognition, Learning, and Memory, University of Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Fabian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Probst
authors.affiliation: Neonatology Service, General Hospital of Thun, Switzerland; Institute of Medical Education, Department of Assessment and Evaluation, University of Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Juliane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Meng-Hentschel
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Switzerland; Hector Research Institute of Education Sciences and Psychology, University of Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: Jessika
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Golle
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Sylvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Stucki
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Carola
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Akyildiz-Kunz
authors.affiliation: Institute of Psychology, University of Bern, Switzerland; Center for Cognition, Learning, and Memory, University of Bern, Switzerland. Electronic address: janek.lobmaier@psy.unibe.ch.
authors.forename: Janek S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Lobmaier
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000378:metabolism*; D007224:Infant Care / Q000523:psychology*; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation / Q000502:physiology; D012737:Sex Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D006854:Hydrocortisone
keywords: Caretaking motivation; Cortisol; Infant care; Sex differences; Skin conductance; Stress response