PSYC 3402 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Common Cold
Document Summary
Sociability and susceptibility to the common cold by sheldon cohen, william j doyle, ronald. Turner, cuneyt m. alper and david p. skoner. The researches set out to study if sociability predicts resistance to infectious disease. Define sociability as the quality of seeking others and being agreeable, and is a determinant of both the quality and quantity of social interaction. 334 volunteer participants filled out questionnaires assessing their sociability, social networks and social supports. They also participated in interviews that assessed their daily interactions. Next, they were exposed to a virus that produces the common cold. Increased sociability was associated in a linear fashion with a decreased probability of developing a cold. Sociability was associated with more and higher quality social interactions, performance of health enhancing behaviors and better regulation of stress-hormone levels, but it predicted disease vulnerability independently of these variables. This suggests sociability may be linked to other disease processes as well.