Why the study?
Does a temporary shift toward low subjective social status increase cardiovascular reactivity in healthy university students?
Does a temporary shift toward low subjective social status increase cardiovascular reactivity in healthy university students?
Temporary shifts toward lower subjective social status cause measurable decreases in heart rate variability, suggesting a causal role of social status in autonomic imbalance and cardiovascular disease risk.
Low SSS acutely lowers HRV; hypothesis-generating for social status effects on autonomic function and long-term CV risk.
The present experiment examined the causal influence of subjective social status (SSS) on variables related to cardiovascular health [i.e., blood pressure, heart rate variability (HRV)]. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions involving a social comparison that either induced a temporary shift toward high SSS or toward low SSS. Cardiovascular variables were measured before (baseline), throughout, and after the manipulation (recovery). Participants in the low SSS condition had a significantly lower HRV during experimental manipulation than at baseline (p = 0.001). They also showed a significantly stronger HRV reactivity compared to participants in the high SSS condition (p = 0.027). Our results suggest that already temporary shifts of one's SSS have measureable effects on cardiovascular variables. They support the notion that social status plays a causal role in the development of cardiovascular disease.
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Pieritz et al. (2016) studied this question.
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