Nonevaluative social support reduces cardiovascular reactivity in young women during acutely stressful performance situations

We tested whether the presence of a stranger reduces cardiovascular respons es during stressful tasks if the evaluation potential of the stranger is mi nimized and whether cardiovascular responses are affected by the quality of support in a friendship. Undergraduate women performed stressful tasks in one of three conditions: Alone, with a same-sex Stranger or with a same-sex best Friend. The stranger and friend could not hear participants' response s. Alone women had the greatest increases in SEP and HR while women in the Stranger and Friend conditions did not differ in their responses. In the Fr iend condition, HR responses were smallest in women who were highly satisfi ed with the support that they generally received from their friend. We conc lude that the presence of a nonevaluative friend or stranger can reduce car diovascular responses and that the quality of supportive ties modulates the impact of those ties on responses to stress.