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. 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.

Differential effects of stress-related and stress-unrelated humor in remitted depression

“…In line with that, it was demonstrated that individuals’ ability to produce humor in distressing contexts is not compromised by depressive symptoms, negative mood states, or high perceptions of threat 51 . The result regarding unaffected subsequent performance is also consistent with previous non-clinical evidence that humor intervention during stress induction protects against psychological and physiological distress, leaving cognitive performance intact 22 .…”

“…There is also experimental evidence that being exposed to humorous material attenuates negative feelings to a greater extent compared to equally positive non-humorous stimuli 21 . In addition, a research on short humorous interventions and perception of stressful events demonstrated that humor is a powerful tool to attenuate both psychological stress response and salivary cortisol levels 22 . Only one study has investigated the impact of humorous emotion regulation strategies in remitted depression; it demonstrated that the use of humor by previously depressed people to comment on a series of distressing scenes could alleviate their negative emotions, increase positive emotions, and enhance distance from adversity 23 .…”

Neural correlates of changing food choices while bypassing values

“…Still, since inhibition, like other forms of cognitive control, requires an immediate mental effort, it is aversive. Consequently, we prefer to rely on cognitive control processes as little as feasible 33,34 , highlighting the importance of regiments that can affect choices without resorting to inhibition 21,22,35,36 .…”

The nature and persistence of the effects of posthypnotic suggestions on food preferences: The final report of an online study

“…(II) Food preferences are not the only factor affecting food choices. Other factors, such as impulsivity (Guerrieri et al, 2008 ; Wiers et al, 2011 ; Jones et al, 2018 ) and transitory states like hunger or stress (Nederkoorn et al, 2009 ; Froehlich et al, 2021a , b ), can strongly affect food choices. Therefore, a plausible explanation for the changes observed regarding unhealthy food items is that under the effects of the PHS, participants were more thoughtful regarding unhealthy choices, with the consequence of suppressing these choice options more frequently.…”