A short humorous intervention protects against subsequent psychological stress and attenuates cortisol levels without affecting attention

Abstract Presentation of humor simultaneously with a stressful event has been shown to dampen the psychological and physiological responses of stress. However, whether a relatively short humorous intervention can be utilized to prevent the subsequent stress processing is still underinvestigated. Fur...

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Autores principales:	Eva Froehlich, Apoorva Rajiv Madipakkam, Barbara Craffonara, Christina Bolte, Anne-Katrin Muth, Soyoung Q. Park
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/647bf5fc1824459ca675f0015958c7d3
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:647bf5fc1824459ca675f0015958c7d32021-12-02T14:23:04ZA short humorous intervention protects against subsequent psychological stress and attenuates cortisol levels without affecting attention10.1038/s41598-021-86527-12045-2322https://doaj.org/article/647bf5fc1824459ca675f0015958c7d32021-03-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-86527-1https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Presentation of humor simultaneously with a stressful event has been shown to dampen the psychological and physiological responses of stress. However, whether a relatively short humorous intervention can be utilized to prevent the subsequent stress processing is still underinvestigated. Furthermore, it is unknown, whether such a humor intervention changes stress processing at a cost of cognitive functioning. According to the broaden-and-build theory inducing positive emotions may subsequently impact cognitive performance. Here, we investigated whether humor protects against subsequent stressors by attenuating both, psychological and physiological stress levels and whether this affects cognitive performance. Participants watched either a humorous or a neutral movie, underwent stress induction and performed in a visual search task. Compared to the control group, psychological stress levels and salivary cortisol levels were lower in the humor group, yet no differences were found in response times and accuracy rates for the visual search task. Our results demonstrate that a short humorous intervention shields against subsequent psychological stress leaving cognitive performance intact, thus making it highly applicable to improve mental and physical health in everyday life situations.Eva FroehlichApoorva Rajiv MadipakkamBarbara CraffonaraChristina BolteAnne-Katrin MuthSoyoung Q. ParkNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-10 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Eva Froehlich Apoorva Rajiv Madipakkam Barbara Craffonara Christina Bolte Anne-Katrin Muth Soyoung Q. Park A short humorous intervention protects against subsequent psychological stress and attenuates cortisol levels without affecting attention
description	Abstract Presentation of humor simultaneously with a stressful event has been shown to dampen the psychological and physiological responses of stress. However, whether a relatively short humorous intervention can be utilized to prevent the subsequent stress processing is still underinvestigated. Furthermore, it is unknown, whether such a humor intervention changes stress processing at a cost of cognitive functioning. According to the broaden-and-build theory inducing positive emotions may subsequently impact cognitive performance. Here, we investigated whether humor protects against subsequent stressors by attenuating both, psychological and physiological stress levels and whether this affects cognitive performance. Participants watched either a humorous or a neutral movie, underwent stress induction and performed in a visual search task. Compared to the control group, psychological stress levels and salivary cortisol levels were lower in the humor group, yet no differences were found in response times and accuracy rates for the visual search task. Our results demonstrate that a short humorous intervention shields against subsequent psychological stress leaving cognitive performance intact, thus making it highly applicable to improve mental and physical health in everyday life situations.
format	article
author	Eva Froehlich Apoorva Rajiv Madipakkam Barbara Craffonara Christina Bolte Anne-Katrin Muth Soyoung Q. Park
author_facet	Eva Froehlich Apoorva Rajiv Madipakkam Barbara Craffonara Christina Bolte Anne-Katrin Muth Soyoung Q. Park
author_sort	Eva Froehlich
title	A short humorous intervention protects against subsequent psychological stress and attenuates cortisol levels without affecting attention
title_short	A short humorous intervention protects against subsequent psychological stress and attenuates cortisol levels without affecting attention
title_full	A short humorous intervention protects against subsequent psychological stress and attenuates cortisol levels without affecting attention
title_fullStr	A short humorous intervention protects against subsequent psychological stress and attenuates cortisol levels without affecting attention
title_full_unstemmed	A short humorous intervention protects against subsequent psychological stress and attenuates cortisol levels without affecting attention
title_sort	short humorous intervention protects against subsequent psychological stress and attenuates cortisol levels without affecting attention
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/647bf5fc1824459ca675f0015958c7d3
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A short humorous intervention protects against subsequent psychological stress and attenuates cortisol levels without affecting attention

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