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Updated: Jul 26, 2026

The Trier Social Stress Test Protocol for Inducing Psychological Stress
Published on: October 19, 2011
Anxiety, reactivity, and social stress-induced cortisol elevation in humans
Taiki Takahashi1, Koki Ikeda, Miho Ishikawa
1Department of Behavioral Science, Faculty of Letters, Hokkaido University, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Japan. ttakahashi@lynx.let.hokudai.ac.jp
Objectives:
Traditionally, it has been hypothesized that highly anxious/emotionally reactive subjects may have exaggerated social stress response. We examined the relationship between self-reported anxiety, emotional reactivity, and social stress response.
Methods:
We investigated the relationship between personality scales of trait-state anxiety, subjective autonomic reactivity, and salivary cortisol levels before and after social stress exposure (Trier Social Stress Test) in 20 men.
Results:
Significant positive correlations between anxiety, subjective autonomic reactivity, and basal cortisol levels were observed, while neither anxiety nor subjective autonomic reactivity was correlated with social stress-induced cortisol elevation.
Conclusions:
The present results indicate (i) subjects with higher degrees of trait anxiety/subjective autonomic reactivity have higher basal cortisol levels, and (ii) in contrast to the traditional view, anxious personality is not strongly associated with exaggerated cortisol response to social stress.
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