So who is better off at work, you or your boss? A Harvard study suggests that it’s your boss because your boss is less stressed. And why is your boss less stressed? It turns out that it is because your boss has control.
The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, looked at indicators of stress, including self-reported anxiety and saliva levels of the hormone cortisol and compared them between groups of leaders and non-leaders.
Results showed that leaders had statistically significant lower levels of cortisol and lower anxiety than nonleaders. The study was repeated on a second group with similar results.
The researchers then dug into what led to this lower level of stress in leaders and concluded that a sense of control, specifically to do with being in authority, was the main contributing factor.
