Reduction Of "vicarious" Stress But Remaining Empathic. Is That Androgenic/healthy?

[LeeLemonoil]

Hedione is a commonly used odorant, used in almost all fragrances and also in functional perfumery. Acqua di Gio for example is loaded with it and so are many many other perfumes. Almost everyone get and got exposed to Hedione. Most would be unaware of it.

Hedione was subject of interesting research in the last few years, showing psychological and physiological effects, some of which were gender specific. It was also one of the few chemicals proven to activate the Vomeronasal receptor 1.
so we have here a physilogicaly very active substance, that one encounters and inhales very often. It has some actions on endocrine systems (reduces cortisol in some tests) and sometimes gender specific. Could be good, could be bad.

This newer paper shows that people exposed to Hedione that observed other people subjected to stress reduced their own vicarious stress but without reducing their ability of empathy.

To me, that sounds like a, in a very broadly sense, "androgenic" effect. Probably also mediated by reduced cortisol. Wouldn't androgenic/healthy people be empatic to other peoples stress/suffering and try to help (and be able to help) while estrogenic/less healthy people would be weakened by vicarious stress and react by avoidance, flight - anti-social behaviour in a sense? Again, broadly speaking: Estrogenic people are unwilling or unable to help and only have energy and resilience to help themselves, if at all - but certainly would avoid getting engaged in other peoples mysery. Waht do you think of this:

Hedione Reduces Subjective Vicarious Stress. - PubMed - NCBI
Hedione Reduces Subjective Vicarious Stress.

Observing another person in a stressful situation can cause a full-blown physiological stress response in the observer, which is referred to as empathic stress. One way through which stress-related information might be transmitted between individuals under conditions of empathic stress is chemosensory communication. In the present study, we investigated whether the odorant Hedione, as a potential chemosignal, affects the empathic stress response at a physiological and psychological level. For this purpose, two experiments were designed, each testing one group of participants in an odor-free room and a second group in a room scented with Hedione. In Experiment 1, 60 participants (25 males) watched a video of an unknown female participant in the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). In Experiment 2, 37 free-cycling females watched a live video of a male participant in the TSST. Observers' psychological and physiological stress response was captured via repeated measurements of salivary cortisol, alpha-amylase, and self-report ratings. Empathy with the stressed participants was assessed on the dimensions of personal distress and empathic concern of the Emotional Response Scale (ERS). Our results show no substantial physiological stress response in the observers and no effect of Hedione on physiological stress measures. Further, in Experiment 1, there was no subjective stress elicited by the video and no effect of Hedione. In Experiment 2, the observation was perceived as stressful and Hedione reduced subjective vicarious stress. The subjective stress response was associated with the Observers' direct personal distress, but not with their empathic concern for the target in both experiments. Based on the findings presented above, we conclude that under conditions of empathic stress, Hedione alleviates subjectively perceived stress felt when observing another person being stressed, while leaving empathic concern for the target unaffected. In this regard, future research is warranted to clarify the underlying mechanisms of this effect.

 

[Tristan Loscha]

very interesting.

 

[GelatinGoblin]

Well this seems like a pretty ambiguous question, functionally, when you look at it in a social sense and what it means to be "Androgenic" (at least socially, which is not very well defined, at least not to my knowledge), it isn't clear enough to answer.
I think you ought to look more into androgens/Cortisol/Serotonin and behaviour to see what is "Healthy". Although take into account the Neurosteroidal effect of SSRIs which will perhaps be used to replicate a high Serotonin subject. You'll see what's a healthy pattern socially and you'll get your answer, but it may not be a easy process. So hope someone knowledgeable on these topics and one who has looked at enough specific studies comes across your post.

Seems like something mentally healthy and a good trait.

 

[snacks]

To me, that sounds like a, in a very broadly sense, "androgenic" effect. Probably also mediated by reduced cortisol. Wouldn't androgenic/healthy people be empatic to other peoples stress/suffering and try to help (and be able to help) while estrogenic/less healthy people would be weakened by vicarious stress and react by avoidance, flight - anti-social behaviour in a sense? Again, broadly speaking: Estrogenic people are unwilling or unable to help and only have energy and resilience to help themselves, if at all - but certainly would avoid getting engaged in other peoples mysery. Waht do you think of this:

Women and estrogen-dominant people possess sympathy (they feel bad when other people feel bad. you put it well "vicarious stress") and will sometimes help people based on that but they don't possess empathy as a semi-detached understanding of the emotional states of others. It follows that the effect that you're describing is androgenic but I would be careful about reducing behavior to just those two hormones.