The olfactory mechanisms of empathic stress (OMES)

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Ilona Croy; Professorin Dr. Veronika Engert; Professor Nicolas Rohleder, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Biological Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience ; Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 549386970

Empathy is essential for successful human interaction and cooperation. It is, however, a self-related emotion that may trigger negative states of pain or stress. Over prolonged time periods, high levels of empathy may therefore be linked to harmful consequences, including burnout and emotional distress. Previous research has shown that we can empathically catch the stress of others, down to the activation of our main stress axes, the sympathetic adrenomedullary system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA). Emotional and spatial closeness between individuals as well as touch boost the likelihood of displaying such empathic stress resonance. While resonating with another’s stress may improve mutual understanding, or prepare the empathic agent for an adaptive stress response themselves, a highly stress-charged family environment may predispose family members for chronic empathy-based stress activation and consequent susceptibility for stress-related disease. The study of empathic stress is still a relatively new field in stress research. Given the role of chronic HPA axis activation for health development, understanding the mechanisms of stress transmission is key to finding ways of preventing it, particularly in contexts of heightened exposure to others’ stress experience. Thus, we plan to address whether olfactory stimuli play a role in the transmission of stress from one individual to another. Also, given their involvement in the production of nervous sweat in situations of psychosocial challenge, we will elucidate how adrenaline and noradrenaline contribute to the hypothesized role of olfaction in empathic stress, potentially through an influence on the implicit and explicit perception of stress sweat. In this synergistically rich cooperation, the principal investigators will offer young scientists training across two laboratory sites. Our results will yield fundamental insight into the mechanisms of stress transmission. In doing so, they will lay the groundwork for developing approaches to protect vulnerable populations from the negative impact of chronic (empathic) stress.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants