The cardiac correlates of feeling safe in everyday life: A Bayesian replication study

Background: Feeling safe and secure has been proposed to dampen autonomic arousal and buffer threat responses. In a previous study, we could show that momentary ratings of subjective safety were associated with elevated heart rate variability (specifically, root mean square of successive differences; RMSSD) and lower heart rate in everyday life, thus suggesting a health-protective role of feeling safe.Methods: This study aimed to replicate this effect in a sample of N = 79 adults, applying Bayesian statistics with prior effects of the original study.Results: Using an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) across three days we could replicate the effect of lower heart rate and higher RMSSD in moments when participants felt more safe. In accordance with the original study, we could also show that the effect on heart rate were independent of RMSSD, thus suggesting a contribution of sympathetic activity to this effect.Conclusion: The findings confirm the connection between momentary feelings of safety and cardiac regulation, thus substantiating research on the health-protective role of psychological safety.