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. 2009 Oct;20(10):1237-44.
doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02437.x. Epub 2009 Sep 14.

Social-evaluative threat and proinflammatory cytokine regulation: an experimental laboratory investigation

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Social-evaluative threat and proinflammatory cytokine regulation: an experimental laboratory investigation

Sally S Dickerson et al. Psychol Sci. 2009 Oct.

Abstract

This study experimentally tested whether a stressor characterized by social-evaluative threat (SET), a context in which the self can be judged negatively by others, would elicit increases in proinflammatory cytokine activity and alter the regulation of this response. This hypothesis was derived in part from research on immunological responses to social threat in nonhuman animals. Healthy female participants were assigned to perform a speech and a math task in the presence or absence of an evaluative audience (SET or non-SET, respectively). As hypothesized, stimulated production of the proinflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) increased from baseline to poststressor in the SET condition, but was unchanged in the non-SET condition. Further, the increases in TNF-alpha production correlated with participants' cognitive appraisals of being evaluated. Additionally, the ability of glucocorticoids to shut down the inflammatory response was decreased in the SET condition. These findings underscore the importance of social evaluation as a threat capable of eliciting proinflammatory cytokine activity and altering its regulation.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Mean tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) production at baseline, posttask, and 40-min recovery for participants in the social-evaluative threat (SET) and non-SET conditions. Error bars represent standard errors of the mean.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Mean posttask tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) production in the social-evaluative threat (SET) and non-SET conditions, for assays at four hydrocortisone concentrations. The means have been adjusted for baseline TNF-α production values. Error bars represent standard errors of the mean.

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