Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 6, 2026
11:13
The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test
Published on: November 19, 2015
14.5K
Social learning under acute stress
1Department of Institutional, Environmental and Experimental Economics, Faculty of Economics, University of Economics in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic.
Plos One
|August 23, 2018
Summary
Acute stress does not alter how individuals weigh social influence in decision-making. This study found no significant impact of stress on social learning or Bayesian updating behavior in participants.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Economics
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
Background:
- Individual decisions are frequently influenced by social cues and acute stress.
- The impact of stress on the weighting of social information in decision-making remains under-explored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how acute stress affects individuals' reliance on social influence during decision-making.
- To determine if stress modifies the weight given to others' decisions in a Bayesian-updating task.
Main Methods:
- A laboratory experiment involving 140 subjects exposed to an acute stressor or control condition.
- Behavioral assessment using a Bayesian-updating task before and after stress exposure.
- Physiological (cortisol, heart-rate) and psychological (mood questionnaire) stress measures.
Main Results:
- Stress induction was confirmed via cortisol, heart-rate, and mood measures.
- No significant effect of stress was observed on subjects' reliance on private or public social signals.
- Stress did not influence the precision of Bayesian-updating behavior.
Conclusions:
- Acute stress does not appear to modulate the weight individuals place on social information in this decision-making context.
- Findings suggest stress does not alter social learning or information integration in a Bayesian-updating task.
- Future research could explore different types of stress or decision-making scenarios.
Related Concept Videos
00:52Social Proof
32.4K
Social proof is a form of persuasion based on comparison and conformity. People compare their behavior and actions to what others are doing and will change to conform to do what their peers do.
32.4K
02:57The Sense of Self: Reflected Self-Appraisal and Social Comparison
56.1K
According to Charles Cooley, we base our image on what we think other people see (Cooley 1902). We imagine how we must appear to others, then react to this speculation. We don certain clothes, prepare our hair in a particular manner, wear makeup, use cologne, and the like—all with the notion that our presentation of ourselves is going to affect how others perceive us. We expect a certain reaction, and, if lucky, we get the one we desire and feel good about it. But more than that, Cooley...
56.1K
02:10Social Scripts
10.3K
People tend to know what behavior is expected of them in specific, familiar settings. A script is a person’s knowledge about the sequence of events expected in a specific setting (Schank & Abelson, 1977). Essentially, scripts are a particular kind of schema, one containing default values for the features within an event. In the restaurant example, the script's features include the props (e.g., tables, menu, food, and money), the roles to be played (e.g., customer and waiter),...
10.3K
01:41Social Traps
26.9K
Social traps are negative situations where people get caught in a direction or relationship that later proves to be unpleasant, with no easy way to back out of or avoid. The concept was orignally introduced by John Platt who applied psychology to Garrett Hardin's "Tragedy of the Commons", where in New England herd owners could let their cattle graze in the common ground. This situation seems like a good idea, but an individual could have an advantage. If they owned...
26.9K
01:04Social Facilitation
36.6K
Not all intergroup interactions lead to negative outcomes. Sometimes, being in a group situation can improve performance. Social facilitation occurs when an individual performs better when an audience is watching than when the individual performs the behavior alone. This typically occurs when people are performing a task for which they are skilled.
36.6K
01:37Social Loafing
39.7K
Another way in which a group presence can affect performance is social loafing—the exertion of less effort by a person working together with a group. Social loafing occurs when our individual performance cannot be evaluated separately from the group. Thus, group performance declines on easy tasks (Karau & Williams, 1993). Essentially individual group members loaf and let other group members pick up the slack. Because each individual’s efforts cannot be evaluated,...
39.7K