Effects of gender and personality on everyday moral decision-making after acute stress exposure

Abstract

developed the study concept and study design. Nina Singer performed data collection. Nina Singer and Ludwig Kreuzpointner performed data analysis. Nina Singer drafted the manuscript under the supervision of

Sexual Dimorphism in Glucocorticoid Stress Response

“…In humans, inconsistent data are reported in the literature about sex differences in cortisol levels, probably because of the difficulty to measure cortisol in controlled conditions. For example, females were found to have higher free cortisol levels than males, as in rodents, in one study with 1258 participants [ 37 ] but the opposite was found in another one where there was no differences at rest and a higher response after a social stress in men [ 38 ]. A meta-analysis for post-stress cortisol levels concluded that men had higher cortisol levels than women but the sex differences could be explained by variations in methodologies [ 39 ].…”

Moral judgment and hormones: A systematic literature review

“…In two mixed-sample studies, results showed that the increase in CORT levels under stress was weakly/moderately associated with a decrease in altruistic [ 38 ] and utilitarian [ 39 ] judgments only in the face of dilemmas with specific characteristics (everyday moral dilemmas/high emotional dilemmas and sacrificial moral dilemmas/personal dilemmas, respectively). In three other studies, led by the same group of researchers, and using everyday moral dilemmas [ 31 , 40 , 41 ], the results had a different direction, as an increase in altruistic responses was observed under stress, which was not always associated with CORT levels. The first association found was expressive for the male sample (r = 0.35) [ 31 ], whereas, in the second study [ 41 ], it was only meaningful for the female sample (r = 0.34).…”

“…In three other studies, led by the same group of researchers, and using everyday moral dilemmas [ 31 , 40 , 41 ], the results had a different direction, as an increase in altruistic responses was observed under stress, which was not always associated with CORT levels. The first association found was expressive for the male sample (r = 0.35) [ 31 ], whereas, in the second study [ 41 ], it was only meaningful for the female sample (r = 0.34). In the third study [ 40 ], there were no significant correlations in an exclusively male sample.…”

“…In contrast, the results of Singer et al [ 31 , 40 , 41 ] were more inconsistent and, when significant, demonstrated an increase in altruistic decisions associated with an increase in CORT levels [ 31 , 41 ]. Nevertheless, these authors share the arguments described above regarding the moral judgment process, with the difference that, for them, and in line with the "Stress Induced Deliberation-to-Intuition" model [ 65 ], in the face of aversive/stressful situations, regular and automatic affective responses are paramount, favoring innate behavioral responses that have been empirically demonstrated to be predominantly prosocial at this level [ 66 ].…”

“…Moreover, they emphasize that the controversies between the findings are related to the moderating role of different variables such as the type of dilemma and the social proximity to the characters involved (e.g., participants decided more altruistically in scenarios involving socially close protagonists [ 40 ]), time to decision/judgment after stress [ 41 ], gender [ 20 ], and individual behavioral traits (e.g., high levels of empathy, agreeableness, and social desirability may favor altruistic responses) [ 67 – 69 ]. These observations are consistent with the study in which only baseline CORT levels were measured [ 37 ] and in which the results were explicitly dependent on personality and on the context/character of the dilemma.…”