Effects of Stoic Training on Fear of Negative Evaluation and Responses to Social-Evaluative Stress: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Abstract
Purpose: Stoic philosophy has influenced cognitive and behavioral therapies, but Stoic training has received limited empirical evaluation. This preregistered randomized controlled trial examined whether Stoic training reduced fear of negative evaluation (FNE), improved broader psychological outcomes, increased Stoic attitudes and behaviors, and altered subjective and cardiac responses to acute social-evaluative stress.
Methods: Undergraduate students (M age = 19.16 years, SD = 1.05; 81% women) were randomized to eight days of online Stoic training or an active control involving literary-fiction readings. Ninety-eight participants completed pretraining and posttraining self-report assessments (Stoic training, n = 46; control, n = 52). Seventy-eight subsequently completed a modified Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), of whom 66 provided usable electrocardiography data for the preregistered cardiac analyses. Before speech preparation, participants in the Stoic condition completed a five-minute Negative Visualization exercise, whereas control participants waited quietly.
Results: Relative to the active control, Stoic training was associated with lower posttraining FNE when controlling for pretraining scores, b = −2.77, p = .016, adjusted d = −0.50, and higher posttraining Stoic Attitudes and Behaviours Scale scores, b = 6.06, p = .038, adjusted d = 0.43. Exploratory subscale analyses suggested possible effects on Beliefs About Control and Beliefs About Happiness, although neither remained significant after correction for multiple comparisons. Between-condition effects on resilience, self-efficacy, and rumination were not significant. During the TSST, cardiac effects were contrary to prediction: Stoic training was associated with higher heart rate, b = 4.13, p = .038, adjusted d = 0.53, and lower heart rate variability, although the latter effect narrowly missed statistical significance, b = −0.17, p = .053, adjusted d = −0.49. Subjective distress and state-anxiety responses to the TSST did not differ significantly by condition.
Conclusions: Stoic training led to significantly greater reductions in FNE and increases in Stoic attitudes than an active control, whereas broader psychological outcomes did not differ significantly between conditions. These findings provide initial evidence that brief Stoic training may modify a cognitive vulnerability relevant to social evaluation while engaging the attitudes and behaviors it is intended to cultivate. The unexpected cardiac effects may reflect the broader training, the acute Negative Visualization exercise administered before the stressor, or their combination, highlighting the need to disentangle the cumulative and acute effects of Stoic practice and determine how the timing and context of Negative Visualization influence responses to social-evaluative stress.
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BibTeX
@misc{lewis2026effects,
title = {{Effects of Stoic Training on Fear of Negative Evaluation and Responses to Social-Evaluative Stress: A Randomized Controlled Trial}},
author = {Michael William Lewis and Charles Kalarchian and Alexander MacLellan},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/egra2_v2},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/egra2_v2/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Effects of Stoic Training on Fear of Negative Evaluation and Responses to Social-Evaluative Stress: A Randomized Controlled Trial
AU - Michael William Lewis
AU - Charles Kalarchian
AU - Alexander MacLellan
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/28
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/egra2_v2
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/egra2_v2/
AB - Purpose: Stoic philosophy has influenced cognitive and behavioral therapies, but Stoic training has received limited empirical evaluation. This preregistered randomized controlled trial examined whether Stoic training reduced fear of negative evaluation (FNE), improved broader psychological outcomes, increased Stoic attitudes and behaviors, and altered subjective and cardiac responses to acute social-evaluative stress. Methods: Undergraduate students (M age = 19.16 years, SD = 1.05; 81% women) were randomized to eight days of online Stoic training or an active control involving literary-fiction readings. Ninety-eight participants completed pretraining and posttraining self-report assessments (Stoic training, n = 46; control, n = 52). Seventy-eight subsequently completed a modified Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), of whom 66 provided usable electrocardiography data for the preregistered cardiac analyses. Before speech preparation, participants in the Stoic condition completed a five-minute Negative Visualization exercise, whereas control participants waited quietly. Results: Relative to the active control, Stoic training was associated with lower posttraining FNE when controlling for pretraining scores, b = −2.77, p = .016, adjusted d = −0.50, and higher posttraining Stoic Attitudes and Behaviours Scale scores, b = 6.06, p = .038, adjusted d = 0.43. Exploratory subscale analyses suggested possible effects on Beliefs About Control and Beliefs About Happiness, although neither remained significant after correction for multiple comparisons. Between-condition effects on resilience, self-efficacy, and rumination were not significant. During the TSST, cardiac effects were contrary to prediction: Stoic training was associated with higher heart rate, b = 4.13, p = .038, adjusted d = 0.53, and lower heart rate variability, although the latter effect narrowly missed statistical significance, b = −0.17, p = .053, adjusted d = −0.49. Subjective distress and state-anxiety responses to the TSST did not differ significantly by condition. Conclusions: Stoic training led to significantly greater reductions in FNE and increases in Stoic attitudes than an active control, whereas broader psychological outcomes did not differ significantly between conditions. These findings provide initial evidence that brief Stoic training may modify a cognitive vulnerability relevant to social evaluation while engaging the attitudes and behaviors it is intended to cultivate. The unexpected cardiac effects may reflect the broader training, the acute Negative Visualization exercise administered before the stressor, or their combination, highlighting the need to disentangle the cumulative and acute effects of Stoic practice and determine how the timing and context of Negative Visualization influence responses to social-evaluative stress.
ER -