In an increasingly globalised world, individuals frequently interact with people from different cultural and social backgrounds. Successfully navigating these interactions requires learning unfamiliar sociocultural norms—informal rules that guide appropriate behaviour in specific social contexts.
While stress is often viewed as harmful for decision-making and cognitive performance, our research suggests a more nuanced perspective. Research led by Professor Krishna Savani of the Department of Management and Marketing at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, together with Shilpa Madan, Pranjal H. Mehta, Desiree Y. Phua, Ying-Yi Hong, and Michael W. Morris, reveals that individuals who are more reactive to stress may actually learn unfamiliar sociocultural norms more quickly, particularly when they receive feedback from their interactions.
Understanding the Role of Stress in Social Learning
When people enter unfamiliar cultural settings—such as working with international colleagues or relocating to another country—they often make behavioural mistakes before learning the appropriate norms. These mistakes can trigger negative feedback or social discomfort.
Our research asked a simple but important question:
Do individuals who react more strongly to stress learn these norms more quickly?
To examine this, we conducted a series of laboratory studies in which participants completed tasks simulating sociocultural interactions. Participants repeatedly made decisions in social situations and received feedback about whether their behaviour was appropriate according to the norms of a particular culture. Learning was measured by how quickly their accuracy improved across trials.
Across the studies, we measured stress reactivity in several ways:
- Genetic predispositions to stress reactivity
- Physiological responses, such as cortisol increases following a physical stressor
- Self-reported dispositional stress reactivity
This multimethod approach allowed us to test whether individuals who are more stress-reactive consistently learn sociocultural norms faster.
How Stress Accelerates Norm Learning
The results were consistent across multiple studies: higher stress reactivity was linked to faster acquisition of sociocultural norms.
- Physiological stress responses, measured through cortisol changes after a controlled stressor, predicted faster learning.
- Self-reported dispositional stress reactivity also correlated with quicker adaptation to new social rules.
- The underlying mechanism appears motivational: initial stress triggered by negative feedback encourages individuals to adjust their behaviour, leading to accelerated learning and eventual reduction in stress.
These findings suggest that stress can act as a catalyst for social adaptation, offering a functional benefit in intercultural contexts.
Implications for Multicultural Engagement
1. Facilitating cross-cultural adjustment
Highly stress-reactive individuals may adapt more efficiently to new social norms, particularly when feedback is clear and structured.
2. Designing effective feedback
Trial-by-trial or experiential feedback can accelerate learning and reduce errors in unfamiliar cultural settings.
3. Reconsidering stress in training
Rather than viewing stress solely as a hindrance, organisations can leverage its adaptive potential to support learning and behavioural adjustment.
By understanding the interplay between stress reactivity and sociocultural learning, leaders can design training programmes, onboarding processes, and international assignments that enhance adaptation and performance.
This study, titled "Stress Reactivity and Sociocultural Learning: More Stress-Reactive Individuals Are Quicker at Learning Sociocultural Norms From Experiential Feedback", is published by the American Psychological Association (APA), in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Interpersonal Relations and Group Processes.
For other publications, please visit:
https://www.polyu.edu.hk/mm/research/selected-a-papers/
