Moderators of cardiovascular reactivity to speech: discourse production and group variations in blood pressure and pulse rate.

To explain why speech produces cardiovascular reactivity, an experiment utilized speech tasks varying in self-disclosure and cognitive preparation and measured the blood pressure and pulse rate of African-American and Caucasian, men and women subjects. One hundred and fifty-six college students with a median age of 21 volunteered to participate. The extemporaneous speech task produced lower systolic blood pressure than the prepared speech task. Self-disclosive speech resulted in lower diastolic blood pressure than non-disclosive speech. Females showed higher pulse rate and men exhibited greater diastolic blood pressure while speaking. Results supported previous research suggesting that women are myocardiacal hyperreactors, while men are vascular hypperreactors and suggest that production processes moderate cardiovascular reactivity to speech.