Abstract
Even though chronic stress is a pervasive problem in contemporary societies and is known to potentially precede both adverse psychological as well as physiological conditions, its effects on decision making have not been systematically investigated. In this paper, we focus on the relation between self-reported chronic stress and self-reported as well as behaviorally shown social preferences. We measured chronic stress with the Trier Inventory for Chronic Stress. To determine social preferences, participants played a double anonymous dictator game. In order to control for the robustness of social preferences we employed a 2x2x2x2 design where we manipulated four variables: the frame (Give to Recipient vs. Take from Recipient), the decision maker’s gender (Female vs. Male), the recipient’s gender (Female vs. Male), and the nature of the reward (Real vs. Hypothetical). Results show that perceived chronic stress is not significantly related to social preferences in monetarily rewarded dictator decisions for either gender. However, women’s displayed preferences for hypothetical rewards are negatively correlated to chronic stress levels. This indicates that higher chronic stress in women is associated with lower hypothetical transfers but not with altered actual behavior as compared to non-stressed women. For men, we do not observe such effects. Our findings suggest that, while chronic stress leaves social preferences unaffected in an incentive compatible task, it might foster what could be interpreted as a decrease in self-image promotion in women. Thus, we conclude that in a thoroughly controlled behavioral task differences in reported chronic stress do not entail differences in social preferences, but relate to variation in hypothetical decisions for women.
Highlights
General introductionChronic stress is a pervasive and growing concern in the modern world
We divide the transfers into real money transfers (Real) and hypothetical money transfers (Hypothetical), as these two conditions are fundamentally different [69], but we pool them for comparison later
Results revealed a slightly positive relation of stress and contributions for women in the real-reward condition (b = 0.05), and negative relations in all other groups (b = -0.20; b = -0.11; b = -.10; for female/hypothetical, male, real, and male hypothetical, respectively). This pattern suggests that only in the hypothetical condition there is a clear relationship between chronic stress and giving behavior in the dictator game, while in the real reward condition, we find an interaction with gender: While female dictators give more under stress, the relation of stress and giving behavior is reversed for man
Summary
Chronic stress is a pervasive and growing concern in the modern world. It is generally measured using self-report measures, especially the TICS [1, 2]. Social preferences under chronic stress chronic stress affects the health of individuals [4], but might affect cognitive mechanisms and decision-making processes. If chronic stress influences social decisions, this could affect interpersonal relationships. The cognitive effects of chronic stress have not been systematically investigated; neither at the individual level, nor in social situations. This paper is a first step towards a better understanding of the effects of chronic stress on social decisions
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