The topic is at the centre of the new season of the RUG & Co. podcast, launched on 16 September. The first episode features psychology researcher Bertus Jeronimus and PhD candidate Ellen Stroemer, both of whom are involved in the national Stress in Action project.
The project brings together researchers from several universities in the Netherlands and aims to better understand how everyday stress develops, how it can be measured and when normal stress responses may begin to have negative effects on health. One of its central ideas is to move part of stress research “from the lab into daily life,” using digital technologies, data analysis and wearable devices.
For students, the subject is easy to recognise. A deadline, a presentation, an exam or even walking into a crowded room can trigger that familiar reaction: a faster heartbeat, sweating and the sudden feeling that your body has switched into alert mode.
Researchers, however, want to understand more about what happens behind these reactions and, importantly, why people respond so differently.
Stress Roulette: Research in the Middle of a Festival
One recent example took place at Lowlands Science, where Ellen Stroemer and her colleagues organised an experiment called Stress Roulette.
Participants were invited to give a short presentation on stage while researchers monitored how their bodies responded to the stressful situation. The audience could even see changes in the participants’ heart rates: for some, their heart rate rose noticeably, while others remained much calmer.
The experiment also highlights one of the main challenges in stress research. Two people can experience exactly the same situation, yet their bodies and their subjective experiences may react in very different ways.
That is one of the reasons why Stress in Action studies stress in real-world settings and aims to develop methods for measuring it at an individual level and in real time. The project looks at both personal and environmental factors that influence stress, as well as the point at which the body’s stress responses may become harmful to mental or physical health.
Science Comes to Forum Groningen
The research is not staying inside the university. On 25 September, Bertus Jeronimus will also present the Stress in Action project at the Eureka! science festival at Forum Groningen.
The festival runs from 7:30 p.m. until midnight and brings together researchers, students, artists and local residents. This year’s theme is “Resilience in Times of Change”, and the programme includes talks, installations, workshops and music. Jeronimus will also discuss situations in which stress can play a useful role, rather than simply being something negative. Tickets cost €8.50.
The new episode of RUG & Co. therefore highlights a less visible side of university research in Groningen: experiments that do not necessarily take place in a quiet laboratory, but instead in the middle of a festival, surrounded by music, an audience and participants deliberately placed in uncomfortable situations.
For students who are often told that they simply need to “get rid of stress”, the research raises a more interesting question: what can stress tell us about the way we respond to the world around us?
