Endocrine response to social rejection: The effect of testosterone and cortisol on pain sensitivity
Year: 2017
Type: dissertation
Abstract: An expanding body of literature suggests that common neural underpinnings governing physical and social pain are evolved adaptations that punish social disengagement by using pain as a signalling mechanism for social rejection.Such a mechanism is necessary in the face of fitness benefits afforded by group living from which a ubiquitous need to belong has grown.Salivary testosterone and cortisol were examined in the context of fluctuating pain sensitivity in response to a social evaluation with a confederate.It was expected that a greater evolutionary prescribed tendency to seek interpersonal support would result in physiological responses to rejection in females leading to reductions in pain sensitivity.While non-significance was found for cortisol, results implicate testosterone as an important factor in altering sensitivity after social interactions in men.This relationship between testosterone and pain may be a function of dominance and increased status seeking resulting from acceptance in a social interaction.
Source: Summit (Simon Fraser University)
Author: Lindsay Cooper
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2702351986