“We found that all types of negative situations do not uniformly elicit cortisol reactivity, therefore questioning the presence of a general cortisol response to all stressors.”

The literature on cortisol responses to acute stressors has been quite inconsistent; some studies have found cortisol levels increase following psychological stressors, while others have not. We conducted a meta-analysis of the literature to determine what conditions are necessary to elicit a cortisol response in the laboratory. Our findings provide a theoretical framework for explaining why some laboratory stressors trigger cortisol changes. Additionally, our results provide methodological guidelines for designing laboratory protocols that can effectively elicit cortisol reactivity.

The results from our meta-analysis paint a clear picture of what conditions are capable of activating a cortisol response in the laboratory. These findings could be quite useful to scientists who utilize cortisol as an outcome measure in their own research, as they provide recommendations for using certain methodological procedures and stressor tasks in order to optimize one’s chances of eliciting and capturing a cortisol response.

The HPA axis, which regulates the release of cortisol, is often considered a major pathway through which stressful life events could affect health outcomes; however, there has a great deal of controversy about the types of psychological stressors that can trigger cortisol activation in humans. We addressed this question by conducting a meta-analysis of the 208 acute psychological stressor studies that examined cortisol as an outcome. We found that all types of negative situations do not uniformly elicit cortisol reactivity, therefore questioning the presence of a general cortisol response to all stressors. Instead, laboratory stressors with uncontrollability and social evaluation were more likely to activate this important physiological system compared to stressors without these components. There is increasing evidence that prolonged cortisol activation can have profound effects on health; therefore, identifying the conditions that are capable of activating this system could help us understand the types of stressful conditions that, if experienced chronically, could lead to negative health outcomes.

Our program of research focuses on delineating the physiological effects of certain types of social threats; we have been interested in whether threats to one’s social self, or threats to one’s social acceptance, esteem, and status, are associated with specific physiological changes. We conducted the meta-analysis because it provided an opportunity to test if stressors which threaten the social self—such as those with social evaluation—provide one set of conditions that are capable of eliciting a cortisol response in the laboratory.