Tell me what you read and I will tell you if you are stressed: stress reactivity in consumers of self-help books

Abstract

Background : The self-help book industry is one of the most lucrative in North America generating profits of $10 billion annually. The main purpose of self-help books is to increase the sense of worth of the readers as well as to provide them with adequate coping strategies, so they can better negotiate their stress. Despite the popularity of this literature, no study has investigated whether it impacts on people's stress reactivity. Consequently, the goal of this study was to compare consumers and non-consumers of self-help books with regard to their physiological stress response. Methods : Thirty-one healthy men and women aged between 18 and 65 took part in this study. Of this group, 16 reported being consumers of self-help books, whereas the other 15 participants reported not being consumers nor attracted by these books. During their afternoon visit to the laboratory, all participants were exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test, a validated psychosocial stressor. Salivary samples were taken throughout the session in order to quantify their cortisol levels. Participants also filled out different questionnaires assessing self-esteem, depressive symptomatology and personality traits. Results : In terms of stress reactivity, the area under the curve with respect to increase was significantly higher in consumers when compared to non-consumers. The two groups did not differ from each other in terms of depressive symptomatology and self-esteem. The consumer group scored lower on the “extraversion” personality trait compared to the non-consumer group. Conclusions : Healthy consumers of self-help books are more stress reactive when facing a psychosocial stressor than non-consumers of self-help books. Although the current study design does not allow concluding about the efficacy of these books, the results nonetheless suggest that further investigation about the impact of this literature is necessary. Moreover, given the considerable amount of consumers of self-help books and their poor ability to cope with stress, there is clearly a need of increasing public awareness about effective coping strategies.

Keywords

• stress
• cortisol
• self-help books
• auto-therapy