Together is Better During Acute Threat: Men and Women Desire Affiliation
After Laboratory Stress Induction
Abstract
Adversity is a pervasive feature of human life, often contributing to
poor physical and mental health outcomes. While social support can
buffer against the negative consequences associated with stressful life
events,
the conditions under which people seek to establish potentially
protective social ties with others in times of distress require greater
attention. In a classic study of affiliation, Schachter (1959) provided
evidence that women exposed to laboratory stressors had an increased
desire for being together. While evolutionary theory broadly predicts
that women will seek to form beneficial relationships in stressful
environments, when faced with acute threat, men may also benefit from
affiliation in the form of coalitions. In the current study, following
an adaptation of Schachter’s (1959) experiment, participants (N = 72;
59.7% female; Mage = 19.56 yrs; 74.6% White) were randomized into a
high-anxiety or low-anxiety group. Logistic regression analyses showed
that both men and women in the high-anxiety condition were significantly
more likely to desire affiliation than those in the low-stress condition
and that participants experiencing anxiety were significantly more
likely to desire affiliation than those without anxiety. This study
replicates and extends Schachter’s (1959) findings, providing evidence
that both men and women prefer to affiliate under conditions of acute
stress, specifically within the context of physical threat.