Acute stressors and cortisol responses: a theoretical integration and synthesis of laboratory research

What the research tells us

Laboratory stressors do not elicit uniform cortisol responses. Social-evaluative threat combined with uncontrollability was associated with stronger responses. Pooled effects were d=.52 (95% CI .38–.66) for uncontrollable tasks and d=.16 (.03–.29) for controllable tasks, helping explain variation between studies.

Scope & interpretation

Task characteristics overlap, so subgroup differences are not equivalent to randomized causal comparisons. Physical stressors, children and clinical populations were excluded; first laboratory exposure also limits everyday application. Peak response, total response and post-task recovery are distinct outcomes.

Study at a glance

POPULATION & SAMPLE

208 experiments in 187 reports, involving 6,153 healthy adults and psychological stress tasks lasting no more than one hour.

EXPOSURE / INTERVENTION / SUBJECT

Acute laboratory psychological stress, comparing controllability, social evaluation and other task features.

OUTCOMES

Cortisol response and time course; not all recovery-model tables have been checked.

TIME FRAME

Search coverage through 2002 with index checks in February 2003; sampling and recovery windows varied by experiment.