Shared Reality Can Reduce Stressor Reactivity.

ABSTRACT: When a person faces a stressor alongside someone else, do they get more or less stressed when the other person agrees that the situation is stressful? While an equally stressed partner could plausibly amplify stress by making the situation seem more real and worthy of distress, we find that social validation during co-experienced stressors reduces reactivity. Specifically, the psychological experience of shared reality calms some people down. In Study 1, 70 undergraduate females who jointly faced a stressful event with someone else reported feeling less anxious when the other person felt the same way about the stressor, relative to when the other person appraised the situation in the opposite way or provided no indication of their appraisal. These findings were reflected in participants' p

SUBMITTER: Goldring MR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9093073 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature