Associations of Chinese social face with cortisol level and glucocorticoid receptor gene

A major source of social stress in the Chinese society is losing face. Inspired by the roles of cortisol functions in stress-coping, we investigated whether cortisol functions (e.g., cortisol level and glucocorticoid receptor gene) are related to social face in Chinese. Study 1 examined the association between salivary cortisol level and social face among 134 college students; and Study 2 investigated associations between the polymorphisms (i.e., rs41423247 and rs10052957) of glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) and social face among 688 college students. Results from Study 1 indicated that salivary cortisol level was positively correlated to the scores on social face; and results from Study 2 showed that the GG genotype of rs41423247, which is related to higher receptor expression, was related to higher social face score as compared with the C allele. Moreover, the association between rs41423247 and social face was mediated by public self-consciousness. These findings highlight the importance of cortisol functions to social face and demonstrate a link between genetic polymorphism, social face and public self-consciousness.