Sending a supportive text to your partner can reduce their physiological stress levels, but only if you ’re subtle about it

By Alex Fradera The average young adult sends more than 100 texts per day, mainly to offer social support to friends and family. But until now, there has been little evidence whether it helps the recipient or not. New research in Computers in Human Behavior confirms that sending a comforting text to a partner confronted with a difficult task really can make them feel supported. But more surprisingly, the study suggests that to actually reduce their stress, it’s better to send a message that isn’t explicitly supportive. Emily Hooker and colleagues from the University of California asked 75 women to attempt a stressful set of tasks involving mental mathematics and public speaking. At the start of the experiment they were fitted with a blood pressure cuff to capture information about blood flow and heart rate. While waiting to perform, some participants received texts from their romantic partner who was waiting in the other room. Crucially, some of the partners sent texts (scripted by the researchers) that were comforting (e.g. “Don’t worry. It’s just a psych study. You’ll be fine.”) whereas others sent more mundane texts that were not explicitly supportive (e.g. “It’s cold in here.”). Participants also received a second reinforcing text with the same tone as the first (i.e. either supportive or mundane) while they prepared for their challenge (other participants acted as a baseline control group and received no texts at any point).  After delivering the t...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: biological Emotion Mental health Social Technology Source Type: blogs