文章基本信息

标题：A short humorous intervention protects against subsequent psychological stress and attenuates cortisol levels without affecting attention
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作者：Eva Froehlich ; Apoorva Rajiv Madipakkam ; Barbara Craffonara 等
期刊名称：Scientific Reports
电子版ISSN：2045-2322
出版年度：2021
卷号：11
DOI：10.1038/s41598-021-86527-1
语种：English
出版社：Springer Nature
摘要：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.