Sex and gender differences in the suppression of the stress systems: A potential link to anxiety and mood disorders?

Abstract

Background: Empathy – the ability to understand and respond to another’s emotional state – is critical for healthy social functioning. Recently, stress has been shown to impact empathy; however, findings are inconsistent with both empathy-impairing and empathy-enhancing effects being observed. Additionally, sex/gender effects have been shown to moderate the physiological and psychological stress response in humans. Given these findings, men and womenmight show differential effects on empathic abilities in response to stress. Here we aimed to understand the stress-empathy relationship by investigating the effects of psychosocial stress on Empathic Accuracy (EA), i.e., the ability to accurately infer the mental state of others. Hypothesis: We predicted that stress would affect EA, and that gender would moderate these effects. Methods:Healthymale (n=16)and female (n=10; late follicular phase of their menstrual cycle) participants completed a baseline EA assessment; 3-weeks later, participants underwent the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), followed by a post-stress EA assessment. Cortisol, salivary alpha amylase (sAA) and subjective stress were measured throughout the experiment. Results: All participants showed elevated cortisol, sAA and subjective stress levels after the TSST, indicating successful stress induction. Preliminary analyses revealed a significant interaction of gender on empathy, with men’s EA increasing after the TSST while women showed a decrease in EA after stress. Conclusion:Our results show that psychosocial stress enhances EA in men, but appears to undermine EA in women.