Having friends to depend on can be comforting, but one new study suggests that sometimes it's best to go it alone.
Ohio State University psychology professor Catherine Stoney, Ph.D., concocted a purposefully stressful situation in which 40 college-aged women were given just two minutes to prepare a speech. They then delivered their speech before a video camera, and while half of the women had a friend on hand for support, the other half gave the speech alone.
To measure stress, Stoney monitored the speakers' blood cholesterol levels before, during and after giving their speeches.
Surprisingly, she discovered that women with a friend present experienced a surge of cholesterol three times greater than did women with no social support.
"It may be that having a friend there engenders more feelings of stress," Stoney explains. "It's that notion of being evaluated by those whose approval you want." Based on her findings, published in the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, Stoney suggests that in non-achievement-focused situations -- such as while waiting for a diagnosis in a physician's office -- having a friend nearby for support will help to alleviate anxiety.
