Investigating Human Physiological Responses to Work-Related Stress

Abstract

Studies have shown that work-related stress is one of the causes of employee burnout, fatigue, and cognitive dysfunction, among other negative effects. Physiological features have been used to investigate stress, but more knowledge is needed in understanding physiological indicators of work-related stress. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, no study is available that integrates both pupillometry and heart rate in investigating work-related stress. We, therefore, utilized task-evoked pupillary response (TEPR) from pupillometry and heart rate (HR), in the assessment of physiological responses of 32 subjects during the performance of Multi-Attribute Task Battery-II consisting of working baseline and stress conditions. A comparison of results of both conditions showed that TEPR and mean HR significantly increased during stress condition, as compared to working baseline condition. These results are attributed to the work related-stressors integrated in our study, thereby bolstering the applicability of heart rate and pupillometry in studies of work-related stress.