Social Identification and Contagious Stress Reactions

The phenomenon of experiencing affective and physiological stress merely by observing other people in stressful situations has been, among others, dubbed stress contagion (Dimitroff et al., 2017; Ebisch et al., 2012), contagious stress (White& Buchanan, 2016), resonance of stress (Buchanan et al., 2012) or empathic stress (Engert et al., 2014). Although all terms refer to the transmission of physiological stress reactions from a stressed person to an observer, a consistent terminology has not yet been agreed on (see White& Buchanan, 2016 for a helpful discussion of the different concepts and a distinction between empathy and stress contagion).

Source: Psychoneuroendocrinology - November 24, 2018 Category: Psychiatry Authors: Valerie A. Erkens, Urs M. Nater, J ürgen Hennig, Jan A. Häusser Tags: Short Communication Source Type: research