Using wearable technology for psychophysiological experiments: Gender roles and cognitive appraisal impact cardiac response to socio-evaluative stress

In this paper, we present a psychophysiological study, which uses a wearable device for the continuous collection of heart rate (HR) measures in 66 participants (53% women). We examine the impact of gender roles and cognitive appraisal on HR and HR adaptation during laboratory induced stress. We show that average values hide patterns of adaptation and advocate the use of measurements with a high granularity (e.g., at the level of the second). Using such measurements, we show that femininity, masculinity (gender roles) and threat and challenge appraisals moderate HR adaptation to stress.