ArticlePsychophysiology2009
Positive affect is associated with cardiovascular reactivity, norepinephrine level, and morning rise in salivary cortisol.
Article in Psychophysiology, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 134 citations in OpenAlex.
- Associations Between Positive Affect and Heart Rate Variability: A Systematic Review.Current cardiology reports · 2025Pooled it
- Exercise training improves blood pressure reactivity to stress: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2023Pooled it
- A single session of exercise reduces blood pressure reactivity to stress: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2022Pooled it
- Socioeconomic Status and Cardiovascular Responses to Standardized Stressors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Psychosomatic medicine · 2018Pooled it
- Positive psychological characteristics in diabetes: a review.Current diabetes reports · 2013Pooled it
- Emotion regulation and positive affect in the context of salivary alpha-amylase response to pain in children with cancer.Pediatric blood & cancer · 2018Trial
- Examination of positive states of mind and heart rate variability: Stress appraisals as a mechanism in trauma-exposed adults.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Article
- Longitudinal associations between well-being, hair cortisol, and self-reported health.Applied psychology. Health and well-being · 2025Article
- Association between positive affect, flourishing, quality of life, and psychological distress in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.Journal of psychosocial oncology · 2025Article
- Is Positive Affect as a Trait Related to Higher Heart Rate Variability in a Stressful Situation?International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Longitudinal association between positive affect and blood lipids in patients following acute myocardial infarction.PloS one · 2023Article
- A Brief mHealth-Based Psychological Intervention in Emotion Regulation to Promote Positive Subjective Well-Being in Cardiovascular Disease Patients: A Non-Randomized Controlled Trial.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Contribution of Academic Satisfaction Judgments to Subjective Well-Being.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Personality determinants of subjective executive function in older adults.Aging & mental health · 2020Article
- Social Ambivalence and Disease (SAD): A Theoretical Model Aimed at Understanding the Health Implications of Ambivalent Relationships.Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2019Review
- Positive Psychological Well-Being and Cardiovascular Disease: JACC Health Promotion Series.Journal of the American College of Cardiology · 2018Review
- Happiness as a Buffer of the Association Between Dependence and Acute Tobacco Abstinence Effects in African American Smokers.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2018Article
- Affect and Incident Participation Restriction in Adults With Knee Osteoarthritis.Arthritis care & research · 2018Article
- Design, rationale and feasibility of a multidimensional experimental protocol to study early life stress.Contemporary clinical trials communications · 2017Article
- Daily positive events and diurnal cortisol rhythms: Examination of between-person differences and within-person variation.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Positive affect was examined as a predictor of (1) cardiovascular reactivity during a sadness and an anger recall task and recovery following the protocol, (2) epinephrine (EPI) and norepinephrine (NOREPI) reactivity and level during the recall protocol, and (3) the diurnal pattern of salivary cortisol. Sample was 328 individuals. Negative affect, age, race, sex, smoking status, income, and BMI were adjusted. During sadness recall, positive affect was inversely related to systolic blood pressure (p=.007) and diastolic blood pressure (p=.049) reactivity, and unrelated to heart rate (p=.226). Positive affect was unrelated to reactivity during anger recall (ps>.19), and was unrelated to recovery at the end of the recall protocol. Positive affect was inversely related to the mean level of NOREPI (p=.046), and unrelated to EPI (p=.149). Positive affect was inversely related to the increase in cortisol 30 min post awakening (p=.042), and unrelated to the evening decline in cortisol levels (p=.174). Positive emotions may be relevant to good health.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.