|
|||||
|
|
Speaking under pressure: Low linguistic complexity is linked to high physiological and emotional stress reactivity |
|
| Authors: | Laura R. Saslow Shannon McCoy Ilmo van der Löwe Brandon Cosley Arbi Vartan Christopher Oveis Dacher Keltner Judith T. Moskowitz Elissa S. Epel |
| Affiliation: | 1. Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, University of California, , San Francisco, California, USA;2. Department of Psychology, University of Maine, , Orono, Maine, USA;3. Department of Psychology, University of Oxford, , Oxford, United Kingdom;4. Department of Social Science, University of South Carolina, , Beaufort, South Carolina, USA;5. Department of Psychology, University of California, , Berkeley, California, USA;6. Rady School of Management, University of California, , San Diego, California, USA;7. Department of Psychiatry, University of California, , San Francisco, California, USA |
| Abstract: | What can a speech reveal about someone's state? We tested the idea that greater stress reactivity would relate to lower linguistic cognitive complexity while speaking. In Study 1, we tested whether heart rate and emotional stress reactivity to a stressful discussion would relate to lower linguistic complexity. In Studies 2 and 3, we tested whether a greater cortisol response to a standardized stressful task including a speech (Trier Social Stress Test) would be linked to speaking with less linguistic complexity during the task. We found evidence that measures of stress responsivity (emotional and physiological) and chronic stress are tied to variability in the cognitive complexity of speech. Taken together, these results provide evidence that our individual experiences of stress or “stress signatures”—how our body and mind react to stress both in the moment and over the longer term—are linked to how complex our speech under stress. |
| Keywords: | Cognitive complexity Cognition Stress reactivity Cortisol reactivity Language |