A simple phone call from mom can calm frayed nerves by sparking the release of a powerful stress-quelling hormone, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The researchers found that when girls were placed in a stressful situation their hearts race and levels of the stress hormone cortisol soar, speaking to their mothers by phone raised the levels of the so-called “love” hormone oxytocin, which washed away the cortisol.

 

Biological anthropologist Leslie Seltzer tested a group of 7- to 12-year-old girls with an impromptu speech and series of math problems in front of a panel of strangers, which cuased their levels of cortisol to shoot up. Once stressed, one-third of the girls were comforted in person by their mothers - specifically with hugs, an arm around the shoulders and the like. One-third were left to watch an emotion-neutral 75-minute video. The rest were handed a telephone with their mothers on the line.

 

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, found that the girls who interacted with their mothers had virtually the same hormonal response, whether they interacted in person or over the phone.

 

The girls' levels of oxytocin, which is strongly associated with emotional bonding, rose significantly and the stress-marking cortisol cleared away. That’s significant, says Seltzer, because it was long though that oxytocin release caused by bonding required physical contact. “It’s clear from these results that a mother’s voice can have the same effect as a hug, even if they're not standing there.”

 

What’s more, the researchers say, is that the relief from stress is a lasting one. By the time the children go home, they’re still enjoying the benefits of this relief and their cortisol levels are still low.

 

“For years I've seen students leaving exams and the first thing they do is pull out their cell phone and make a call,” Seth Pollak, psychology professor and director of UW-Madison’s Child Emotion Lab at the Waisman Center. “I used to think, ‘How could those over-attentive, helicopter parents encourage that?' But now? Maybe it's a quick and dirty way to feel better. It's not pop psychology or psychobabble.”

 

Pollak calls the finding that a simple phone call could have such a physiological effect “exciting.” “It’s hard to get cortisol up,” he says. “It's hard to get oxytocin up.”