Experimental Social Fear

Abstract

The aims of the two studies were to investigate the relationship between emotions and immune responses in an experimental setting by inducing social fear and to broaden our understanding of bodily reactions by examining both cardiovascular and hormonal responses. Seventy-nine healthy subjects were confronted with a situation in which relatively strong social fear was induced in the laboratory. Social fear was induced by having to prepare and give an oral presentation in front of an audience. Thirty additional healthy subjects formed a control group; they followed exactly the same procedure, but, instead of the "public speaking situation," they were subjected to a nondemanding task of the same duration. The results indicate that public speaking evoked fear as shown by both elevated feelings of tenseness and negative bodily sensations. Moreover, the data clearly show enhanced cardiovascular activity, elevated plasma hormone levels, and changes in immunological parameters (natural killer cell number and T helper/inducer cells). The control group reported significantly less feelings of tenseness and negative bodily sensations and showed a decrease in cortisol, prolactin, and beta-endorphin levels. Although some variation on immune responses was present, no variation on cardiovascular activity occurred in the control group during the experiment. The results show that there is indeed a relationship between emotion and immune responses. In addition, the data collected on body responses point to a direct mediating effect of sympathetic-adrenal medulla activity and an indirect mediating effect of hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis activity.

Stress-Induced Endocrine and Immunological Changes in Psoriasis Patients and Healthy Controls

“…These results confirm previous observations using public speaking or mental stress [18, 26] as stress models and similar patterns of change are also seen after intense emotional stress [10]. Recently it has been demonstrated that catecholamines play a determining role in stress-induced increases of NK cell numbers [12].…”

“…Acute psychological stress was induced by public speaking and mental arithmetic [18]. Subjects were instructed to prepare a speech (topic: ‘Children’s position in today’s society’).…”

Experimental Methods for Inducing Basic Emotions: A Qualitative Review

“…Situational procedures target social fear or physical fear. Social fear inductions include anticipated failure at an easy task or preparing a speech to be performed and evaluated by others (Gerritsen, Weigant, Bermond, & Frijda, 1996;Pauls & Stemmler, 2003;Schofield et al, 2017). Examples of paradigms that target physical fear include anticipated electric shock, abseiling down the side of a building, or interrogating participants after forcing them to commit a pseudocrime (e.g., Brooke & Long, 1987).…”

“…Both social and physical fear inductions are effective at increasing feelings of fear (e.g., Castaneda & Segerstrom, 2004). Additionally, situational procedures increased heart rate, skin conductance response, blood pressure, and decreased metabolic function (e.g., Gerritsen et al, 1996). These autonomic effects occur in comparison to both neutral controls and other emotions (e.g., anger; Pauls & Stemmler, 2003).…”

Lymphocyte Subsets and Mood States in Panic Disorder Patients

“…Speech stress in healthy men was found to result in significant increases in Ts cells and NK cells and a reduction in the Th/Ts ratio versus baseline (25). Gerritsen and colleagues (26) also found that a laboratory induced fear situation (public speaking) produced changes in the experimental subjects' immune systems, and specifically reduced the numbers of Th cells and T lymphocytes. Heightened stress as well as heritable factors has been suggested to contribute to the onset of panic disorder (27).…”