Manipulation check
PHYSIOLOGICAL STRESS
To confirm the effects of the TSST on participants’ stress levels, the effect of the TSST manipulation on physiological stress (cortisol) was tested with a 2 (treatment group: control vs. TSST) x 3 (timepoint: baseline, post-treatment condition, post-social interaction) mixed model, with timepoint as a repeated measure and cortisol concentration as the outcome variable. A Greenhouse-Geisser correction was applied since the assumption of sphericity was not met. An expected interaction effect between treatment group and timepoint was significant [