The World Health Organization has declared stress to be one of the greatest health risks of the 21st century and assumes that by 2020, one in two sick days will be due to stress. Paradoxically, this development of stress into a "widespread disease" is occurring at a time when classic stressors such as threats to our physical integrity (e.g. through physical deprivation or natural enemies) have become less common.
Today, it is the human tendency to experience stress for purely psychosocial reasons that chronically activates our stress system and consequently makes us susceptible to stress-related illnesses. The study of the stress system in a social context, and conversely, how social factors can be used to positively influence our stress system and consequently prevent or mitigate stress-associated diseases, is an important focus of the research group.