AUTHOR=Pieritz Karoline , Süssenbach Philipp , Rief Winfried , Euteneuer Frank TITLE=Subjective Social Status and Cardiovascular Reactivity: An Experimental Examination JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology VOLUME=7 YEAR=2016 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01091 DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01091 ISSN=1664-1078 ABSTRACT=
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 (