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Anxiety-Induced Behavioral Response Choices in Young Adults

Hansol An, Grace Woodard, Michelle Pyke

We explored the gender differences in stress-related responses through a situational questionnaire. Our

results suggest that females are more likely to choose tend and befriend responses at higher rates and men

are more likely to choose fight or flight responses at higher rates.

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Abstract

While the fight or flight stress response is an adaptive behavioral strategy for men, it is not an

adaptive behavioral strategy for women due to women’s smaller size and investment in offspring. We

sought to replicate that women do in fact tend to have a different behavioral stress response than men. Our

survey was modeled after Turton & Campbell (2007), in which 3 stressful situations were presented to

participants with 4 answer choices corresponding to tend, befriend, fight, and flight behavioral stress

responses. The survey was administered to 64 participants (32 = women), and the data was analyzed for

the frequency of tend and befriend response choices for men and women. Our results showed that women

chose the tend and befriend options at a higher rate than men, and men chose the fight or flight option at a

higher rate than women. This pattern of results shows that men and women have different behavioral

responses under stress, which has huge implications for research and clinical interventions centering

around stress. Most psychological treatments for anxiety and stressor related disorders are uniform for

both men and women, but this pattern of results suggests that different treatments may be more successful

for women than for men.

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Until recent history, science has been a male-only enterprise in which men determined the

relevant questions to study, comprised of most of the study subjects, and interpreted research results. As

recently as 2000, UCLA psychologist Dr. Shelley Taylor and colleagues introduced a female specific

biopsychological theory that challenged the widely accepted fight or flight model of stress introduced 70

years prior (Taylor et al., 2000). Her theory is based on the evolutionary logic that for women, a fight or

flight behavioral stress response would not always be possible due to females smaller size and greater

investment in offspring (Taylor et al., 2000). The theory proposes that women evolved a tend and befriend

stress response due to the attachment-caregiving system (Taylor et al., 2000). Tending includes nurturing

activities that protect the self and offspring, reduce distress, and increase safety while befriending

involves building and preserving social networks to help these processes (Taylor et al., 2000). We sought

to determine whether there is a difference in men and women’s behavioral response choices in stressful

situations. We hypothesize that when men and women are given stressful situations and 4 answer choices

corresponding with tend, befriend, fight, and flight, women will tend to choose a tend and befriend option

more than men. Our study and hypothesis is modeled after another study using similar methods, which

found that women did in fact tend to have a tend and befriend behavioral stress response much more than

men (Turton & Campbell, 2007).

In order to test our hypothesis, we created survey questions replicating that of Turton & Campbell

(2005), with 3 stressful situations and 4 behavioral response choices that correspond to a tend, befriend,

fight, or flight response in random order (see Pyke et al., 2018). Then, we distributed a survey around the

UW campus for three days, and we observed the patterns of the answers throughout male and female

participants monitoring whether there was a difference in stress response choice by gender. We found an

average response choice for each participant based on their 3 answer choices, and analyzed the frequency

of tend and befriend versus fight and flight averages by gender. We hypothesized that women have a

“tend and befriend” stress response as opposed to a “fight or flight” stress response, meaning our
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predicted results will show women will tend to choose “tend and befriend” answer choices while men will

tend to choose “fight or flight” responses (Figure 1). If our hypothesis is wrong and there is no significant

correlation between the gender and the stress response, then there would be no difference between men

and women in tend and befriend versus fight or flight answer choices (Figure 2).

Given a total of 68 participants (50% of which are female), the actual results indicate that females

are more likely to act on a tend or befriend response rather than the traditional flight or fight response

(Figure 4). Each participant was assigned a primary stress response, either tend and befriend or fight or

flight, based on their responses to the 3 situations (in other words, each participant’s average). More

females than males were associated with tend and befriend responses, and more males than females were

associated with fight or flight responses (Table 2). Thus, the hypothesis matches with the actual results.

These results suggest that females may be more perceptive of how relationships and social networks are

influenced by the implications of high-stakes decisions. However, we cannot draw too strong of a

conclusion because the results indicate that men and women both chose the tend and befriend option more

than half the time (Table 2). Additionally, the results indicate that males do not rely solely on fight or

flight responses and, in fact, do choose tend or befriend responses given certain stressful situations

(Figures 4 and 5). Therefore, females may turn to tend or befriend responses at a higher rate than males.

One key weakness of our study is that most participants in our survey were college students.

Therefore, we wonder if there is a generational difference that influences the likelihood of males and

females to choose tend and befriend responses during high-stakes situations. A potential design for a

study could be to randomly select 50 females and 50 males who are between the ages of 60 and 70. We

would present each with the same questionnaire presented in this study. We hypothesize that males in the

older age sample will choose the tend and befriend option at a lower rate than the young men in our study.

Should the hypothesis hold true, the predominant stress response for males should be higher for fight or

flight stress responses than in our current data (Figure 6).

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Tables and Figures

Figure 1:

Predictions under our hypothesis​: If

our hypothesis is correct, the predicted

results will show that women will tend

to choose the “tend and befriend”

choice more than men.

Figure 2:

Predictions under the null hypothesis:

If our hypothesis is not correct, the

predicted results under the null

hypothesis will show that there is no

difference between men and women in

their choices between “tend and

befriend” and “fight or flight” answer

choices.
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ACTUAL RESULTS

Table 1: ​Probability that tend or befriend response would be chosen

Total Count Proportion within Gender Sample

Female (n=102*) 78 0.7647

Male (n=102) 61 0.5980

* All 68 participants (34 of each gender) had the choice to select a response for three questions.

Therefore, the sample size is equal to 102 for the purpose of this particular data visualization.

Table 2: ​Survey Responses Sorted by Predominant Factor

Predominant Factor Females Males Difference

Tend 17 16 1

Befriend 4 2 2

T/B** 9 4 5

TOTAL 30 22 8

Fight 0 4 -4

Flight 2 3 -1

F/F*** 2 5 -3

TOTAL 4 12 -8
** Tie between Tend or Befriend
*** Tie between Fight or Flight
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Figure 3: ​Actual Results for Our Replication Study:​ For each given participant, the predominant

behavioral response associated with answers to questionnaire. Women chose tend and befriend more often

than men, and men chose fight and flight options more than women.

Figure 4: ​Tend and Befriend Response Choices by Gender:​ Among all participants, the number of

responses associated with tend or befriend chosen in the questionnaire. Women tended to choose more

tend and befriend options.

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Figure 5: ​Fight and Flight Response Choices By Gender​: Among all participants, the number of responses

associated with fight or flight chosen in the questionnaire. Men tended to choose more fight or flight

options.

Figure 6: ​Predicted Results if the Hypothesis is Correct​: We predict that there is a generational difference,

and that older men will chose fight and flight responses at a higher rate than younger men, and will

choose tend and befriend responses less than younger men.

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Works Cited

Pyke, M. K., Woodard, G. S., & An, H. (2018) Anxiety-Induced Responses and Habits Survey.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/123r_FPskGUx1kbbLk8xGYFSoJ9H_NDsIL5KP5nJzEGY/edit

Taylor, S. E., Klein, L. C., Lewis, B. P., Gruenewald, T. L., Gurung, R. A., & Updegraff, J. A. (2000).

Biobehavioral Responses to Stress in Females: Tend and Befriend, Not Fight or Flight.

Psychological Review, ​107(3), 411-429. doi:10.1037/ / 0033 295X.107.3.411

Turton, S., & Campbell, C. (2007). Tend and Befriend Versus Fight or Flight: Gender Differences in

Behavioral Response to Stress Among University Students. ​Journal of Applied Biobehavioral

Research, ​10(4), 209-232. doi:10.1111/j.1751-9861.2005.tb00013.x