Watching someone else struggle with a tense situation can cause spikes in stress hormones even, in observers who are not directly involved — a finding that researchers say may apply to watching suffering portrayed on TV shows, as well. Details reported June 19 that German researchers found that 95 percent of study subjects compelled to take part in a stressful job interview and math test experienced a rise in the stress hormone cortisol — not a surprising finding. However, they also found that 30 percent of people who watched the experiment through a two-way mirror experienced a rise in cortisol levels, as did 26 percent of those who watched via closed-circuit TV. When the test subject was a romantic partner, cortisol levels rose in 40 percent of observers, compared to 10 percent when the subject was a stranger, the experiment showed. The findings are published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology.
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 17:51:47 +0000
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