Abstract
There is evidence that altering stress mindset—the belief that stress is enhancing vs. debilitating—can change cognitive, affective and physiological responses to stress. However individual differences in responsiveness to stress mindset manipulations have not been explored. Given the previously established role of catecholamines in both placebo effects and stress, we hypothesized that genetic variation in catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT), an enzyme that metabolizes catecholamines, would moderate responses to an intervention intended to alter participants’ mindsets about stress. Participants (N = 107) were exposed to a stress mindset manipulation (videos highlighting either the enhancing or debilitating effects of stress) prior to engaging in a Trier Social Stress task and subsequent cognitive tasks. The associations of the COMT rs4680 polymorphism with the effect of stress mindset video manipulations on cognitive and affective responses were examined. Genetic variation at rs4680 modified the effects of stress mindset on affective and cognitive responses to stress. Individuals homozygous for rs4680 low-activity allele (met/met) were responsive to the stress-is-enhancing mindset manipulation as indicated by greater increases in positive affect, improved cognitive functioning, and happiness bias in response to stress. Conversely, individuals homozygous for the high-activity allele (val/val) were not as responsive to the stress mindset manipulation. These results suggest that responses to stress mindset intervention may vary with COMT genotype. These findings contribute to the understanding of gene by environment interactions for mindset interventions and stress reactivity and therefore warrant further investigations.
Highlights
Cognitive, emotional, and physiological responses to stress are not solely determined by the amount of stress one experiences and by one’s beliefs about stress
There were no significant differences by genotype on baseline levels of positive affect (F1,107 = 1.98, p = .14, η2 = .037), or negative affect (F1,107 = 1.79, p = .17, η2 = .033) as measured by the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) (Table 1)
We present novel evidence suggesting that genetic variation in COMT can further modify responses to a stress mindset manipulation
Summary
Emotional, and physiological responses to stress are not solely determined by the amount of stress one experiences and by one’s beliefs about stress. COMT rs4680 moderates effect of stress mindset on affect and cognition mindset—the belief that stress has enhancing versus debilitating properties—has demonstrated that higher indices of health, performance, and well-being can ensue from holding a stress-is-enhancing relative to a stress-is-debilitating mindset [1]. Prior research has demonstrated that participants adopting a SIE mindset, after merely watching a 3-minute video highlighting enhancing (vs debilitating) effects of stress, demonstrated greater cognitive flexibility, heightened positive affect, and increased anabolic hormonal reactivity in response to an acute stressor [2] relative to those adopting a SID mindset. Watching three short (3-minute) videos emphasizing the beneficial aspects of stress at work was associated with adopting a SIE mindset as well as improvements in work performance and self-reported health [1]
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