You probably look at the CEO of your company or the President of your school and think that life would be much less stressful if you were in their position. You would have more money and more power to do what you want to do. However, do top dogs also have more stress?
Studies on the Relationship Between Status and Stress:
One interesting study tracked 125 adult male baboons across 5 social groups in Kenya. In each social group, baboons were ordered by rank and fecal glucocorticoid (stress hormone) samples were collected over time. Not surprisingly the researchers found that the higher the baboon’s social rank, the less stress it had. There was a striking exception though. The highest ranking baboon in the groups had the highest stress levels of them all. In the chart below the numbers on the x-axis are the baboons’ rank, with 1 being the alpha male.
The researchers noted that while alpha baboons had similar stress levels as low ranking baboons, the stress likely came from different sources.
A major energetic source of stress for alpha males seems to be high levels of agonistic and mating activities, as proposed for chimpanzees. In contrast, males in the lower part of the hierarchy are likely to experience energetic costs associated with limited access to resources (such as food), a commonly recognized phenomenon for low-ranking individuals.
Many people struggle to cope with the stress that comes from working at an executive level and often find themselves turning to drugs and alcohol as a way to manage. This is an unhealthy coping mechanism and people who have found themselves battling substance abuse as a way to deal with their stress may want to look into The Ohana executive programcan help them get on the path to recovery. This is a program designed specifically for executives that offers privacy if they are wishing to seek flexible treatment around their work. So if drugs and alcohol aren’t the answer, then what is? Dealing with stress is what becomes the issue for many people that know they suffer. Fortunately, there are many ways to cope with stress. If the products are approved for sale by the respective regulatory body, one can always rely on and buy products like CBD oil supplements, gummies, creams, capsules, etc. However, not every country has legalized its usage. It is therefore wise to find other activities that can reduce anxiety and stress. Nevertheless, the products from places such as The Herb Centre might be beneficial. They have a wide range of substances that many people agree feel a positive impact on stress relief and helping people to unwind and relax. The researchers also cautioned that human studies are likely to be obscured by “the common practice of pooling data across many ranks to categorize individuals as simply ‘high’ vs. ‘low’ ranking.” And that’s exactly what we see in human studies unfortunately. One study found that leaders have less stress than non-leaders and higher ranking leaders had less stress than lower ranking leaders. However, given that all of the participants were from an executive education program, it’s safe to say none were running their organization.
Conclusion:
While the findings from the baboon study haven’t been replicated in humans yet, they at least make intuitive sense. There are, of course, many benefits of being the top dog. This study suggests that relaxation might not be one of those benefits though. Luckily, it shouldn’t be a major outgoing to buy ashwagandha on Amazon, and it’s been said it helps with stress, and sleep.
Citation:
Gesquiere, Laurence R., et al. “Life at the top: rank and stress in wild male baboons.” Science 333.6040 (2011): 357-360.
Sherman, Gary D., et al. “Leadership is associated with lower levels of stress.”Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109.44 (2012): 17903-17907.