5. “The Whitehall and Serengeti studies are in a sense starting from opposite ends of a possible bridge. While the baboons show hierarchically associated variations in physiological responses to stress that are consistent with health eects, the civil servants show hierarchical variations in health outcomes that must emerge from some physiological pathway” (Evans, 2002).

a) What do you think this statement is trying to say?

b) To what extent do you agree with the claims made in this statement? It is often claimed that stress can make us sick and that one’s position in the social hierarchy inuences the stressors that we are exposed to. Supporters of this claim often refer to research that in part relies on the use of primates. Two studies in particular are commonly cited as being relevant. Robert Sapolsky’s study of Serengeti baboons and Carol Shively’s research on macaque monkeys highlight that a primate’s social position can aect the level of stress hormones in the body and increase the likelihood of stress-related disease. In the National Geographic documentary Stress: The Portrait of a Killer, Sapolsky claims that the baboons in his study experience stress in a way that allows generalization of his ndings to humans. As a result, his ndings are often examined alongside the famous Whitehall studies that investigated stress in British civil servants. These generalizations and comparisons should, however, be treated with caution and the strength of the initial ndings veried.

The research studies listed below are featured in the National Geographic documentary. Read them and answer the questions to investigate the accepted truth of these ndings.

● Marmot, M et al. 1997. “Contribution of job control and other risk factors to social variations in coronary heart disease incidence”.

● Sapolsky, RM. 2005. “The inuence of social hierarchy on primate health”.

● Sapolsky, R. 1999. “Hormonal correlates of personality and social contexts: from non-human to human primates”.

● Shively, C and Clarkson, T. 1994. “Social status and coronary artery atherosclerosis in female monkeys”.

● Epel, E et al. 2004. “Accelerated telomere shortening in response to life stress”.

● Evans, R. 2002. Cited in Petticrew, M, Davey Smith, G and Gursky-Doyen, S. 2012. “The monkey puzzle: a systematic review of studies of stress, social hierarchies, and heart disease in monkeys (stress, dominance and heart disease in monkeys