Associations of Chinese social face with cortisol level and glucocorticoid receptor gene

• Published in: Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) Vol. 41; no. 11; pp. 7565 - 7573
• Main Authors: Gong, Pingyuan, Guo, Wenxuan, Zhang, Xia, Cao, Keqing, Wang, Quanhe, Zhang, Mengfei, Liu, Jinting, Fan, Yuhe, Zhang, Rui, Zhou, Xiaolin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.11.2022; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Behavioral Science and Psychology; Cell receptors; College students; Consciousness; Corticosteroids; Hormones; Hydrocortisone; Interpersonal relations; Physiological aspects; Psychological aspects; Psychology; Social Sciences; Stress (Psychology); China; Social face; Cortisol; Public self-consciousness; Glucocorticoid receptor
• ISSN: 1046-1310; 1936-4733
• DOI: 10.1007/s12144-020-01255-5

A major source of social stress in the Chinese society is losing face. Inspired by the roles of cortisol functions in stress-coping, we investigated whether cortisol functions (e.g., cortisol level and glucocorticoid receptor gene) are related to social face in Chinese. Study 1 examined the association between salivary cortisol level and social face among 134 college students; and Study 2 investigated associations between the polymorphisms (i.e., rs41423247 and rs10052957) of glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) and social face among 688 college students. Results from Study 1 indicated that salivary cortisol level was positively correlated to the scores on social face; and results from Study 2 showed that the GG genotype of rs41423247, which is related to higher receptor expression, was related to higher social face score as compared with the C allele. Moreover, the association between rs41423247 and social face was mediated by public self-consciousness. These findings highlight the importance of cortisol functions to social face and demonstrate a link between genetic polymorphism, social face and public self-consciousness.