鈥淗ouston, we鈥檝e had a problem鈥� was the famous understatement by astronaut James Lovell after an explosion on board Apollo 13 that might have doomed its crew to die in space. Now a team led by Jennifer Boyd of the University of California, San Francisco, has found that the way astronauts react to stress varies between cultures.
They analysed weekly mood questionnaires completed by eight US astronauts and nine Russian cosmonauts on board the International Space Station. While the Russians tended to experience depression in combination with fatigue, US astronauts experienced depression linked to anxiety.
Understanding different cultural responses to stress is crucial, the authors write, 鈥渂ecause they have the potential to seriously disrupt future international space missions鈥� (Acta Astronautica, ).
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