Frozen by stress: Stress increases scope insensitivity

Abstract

Stress has become a widely experienced state all around the world, and previous literature has found that stress impacts individuals’ cognition, emotion, coping behaviors and psychological well-being in general. Relatively little is known about how stress influences individuals’ perception of stimuli changes, a ubiquitous phenomenon known as scope sensitivity. In the current work, we explore whether individuals with higher levels of chronic stress are sensitive to stimuli changes, such as price and quantity differences. Two empirical studies consistently show that chronically stressed individuals exhibit scope insensitivity, as they rated the expensiveness of two hotel rooms with different prices as being less different and indicated a smaller difference in their willingness-to-buy five CDs versus ten CDs. Possible explanations and theoretical and practical implications in the broader field are discussed.

Despotic leadership and IT project efficiency: the role of resilience

“…Under stressed circumstances, employees are not able to meet the project schedule, budget and scope (the definition of project efficiency) (Serrador and Turner, 2015), because increased stress negatively affects employees' focus on performing project tasks (Khosravi et al, 2020). Moreover, according to Al-Janabi et al (2020), job stress results in re-work (associated with additional costs and time), since stress impacts individuals' cognition, sensations, coping behaviors and psychological well-being in general (Li et al, 2019). According to Xie and Johns (1995), job stress is negatively associated with the scope of a job (project scope in this case).…”

The Effect of Stress on Individuals’ Wasting Behavior: The Mediating Role of Impaired Self-Control

“…According to a nationwide study by the American Psychological Association (APA) in 2020 [18], more than 60% of surveyed Americans reported experiencing high stress. Scholars have defined stress as a psychological state experienced by people confronted with demanding, challenging, and threatening events or situations, also termed stressors [19,20]. Research has shown that stressors can be either incidental challenging events or chronic threatening situations [20,21].…”

“…Scholars have defined stress as a psychological state experienced by people confronted with demanding, challenging, and threatening events or situations, also termed stressors [19,20]. Research has shown that stressors can be either incidental challenging events or chronic threatening situations [20,21]. For example, major life events such as college entrance examinations or divorce, and environmental factors including natural disasters or air pollution, serve as stressors that contribute to stressful feelings [21][22][23].…”

“…For example, stress has been shown to impair humans' cognitive flexibility [28], attention capacity [29], and memories [30]. Li et al [20] discovered that stress could bias individuals' numerical perceptions and judgments. In addition, stress leads to behavioral inhibition.…”

Hair Loss in Foreign Medical Students and Alter its Intensity during the Covid-19 Pandemic in Georgia

“…As we age we experience changes in our hair and scalp health, these changes are multifactorial with contributions from genetic predisposition, pathological states, stress, pharmacotherapy, and nutritional inadequacies [2]. Over the generations there has been a rapid increase in stress due to various factors and generations such as millennials and Generation Z are more increasingly living under stress [3]. This stress has the potential to alter the immune response and transiently hamper hair growth [4].…”