Effect of Imagined Support on Perceptions of Stress

Social support is known to help buffer the effects of stress (Uchino et al., 1996). However, in many situations social support is unavailable, and imagining social support may help to reduce the impact of stress. Although imagined physical touch has been shown to be an effective stress buffer, little research has compared it to other types of imagined support (Feldman et al., 2010). Additionally, women tend to seek emotional support, whereas men tend to seek tangible support, but it is unknown if imagining those types of support will reduce stress (Reevy & Maslach, 2001). To gain greater insight into these processes, the purpose of this project was to identify whether imagining supportive touch, emotional social support, or giving emotional support is best at moderating stress during an impromptu speech task that was conducted over zoom. Participants completed initial measures of perceived stress, personality, and social support. Next, they indicated their stress levels after the manipulated social support condition and the stress task. Initial results showed that changes in perceived stress did not significantly vary by support condition. However, the control condition had the highest increase in stress during the speech task. Future research is needed to determine whether imagining social support can be effective in helping people cope with stressful situations