Why Some People Are Better at Handling Stress

Your flight just got canceled, and you’re waiting in the airline’s customer service line to rebook it. One traveler is visibly distressed, while another seems relatively unfazed. The disruption is the same, but their bodies and brains may be responding to it very differently.

Scientists have long known that genetics, personality, and past experience help shape how strongly people react to pressure. Now, new research suggests the gut microbiome—the community of microbes living in the digestive tract—may also play a role.

In a recent study, people with more diverse gut microbes showed stronger responses to acute stress—a finding researchers say may reflect the body mobilizing effectively, not coping poorly.

The findings add a surprising new dimension to a familiar question: Why does the same stressful situation seem to hit different people so differently?

What happens in the body during stress

Stress is a natural reaction that occurs when you perceive a challenge, demand, or potential threat, says Timothy Riley, a family medicine physician at Penn State Health and certified Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction teacher.

When you feel stressed, your amygdala—the brain’s emotional processing system—can spring into action, according to Kelly Atwood, associate professor in the Department of Graduate Psychology at James Madison University. When your brain detects a threat, it sends a message to the hypothalamus, your body’s command center, which helps coordinate the body’s stress response.

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As such, you may experience physical sensations in a high-stress situation, like a pounding heart, faster breathing, GI issues, or your muscles kicking into gear to potentially run away from a dangerous situation, says Rajita Sinha, director of the Yale Stress Center.

The gut may influence how the body rises to a challenge

New research published in Neurobiology of Stress suggests that people with a more diverse gut microbiome, meaning a wider variety of microorganisms living in the gut, may respond differently to acute stress. In the study, greater microbial diversity was associated with stronger cortisol and self-reported stress responses in healthy adults.

The gut and brain are in constant communication through what is known as the gut-brain axis, explains study author Thomas Karner, professor of psychology at the University of Vienna in Austria.

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“The gut microbiome and the compounds it produces can influence how the body’s stress system responds to challenges and how stress hormone levels are regulated,” Karner says. “At the same time, stress can alter the composition of the gut microbiome, affect gut barrier integrity and inflammation, and change the production of microbial metabolites such as short-chain fatty acids. As a result, the relationship between gut health and stress appears to work in both directions.”

A stronger stress response isn’t always a worse one

But not all stress is harmful. Short-term, or acute, stress can help the body respond to an immediate challenge or threat, Karner explains.

Karner gives the example of a zebra running from a lion in the savannah: In that moment, the stress response helps mobilize energy and focus attention to deal with the threat. He explains the finding raises the possibility that greater microbiome diversity accompanies a more flexible or appropriately mobilized stress response, rather than simply dampening stress.

“In our study, higher gut microbial diversity was associated with stronger cortisol and subjective stress reactivity after an acute stressor, which may reflect a time-limited and adaptive mobilization of the stress system that helps us rise to the challenge,” he says.

Chronic stress, on the other hand, involves prolonged or repeated activation of stress-related systems. To stay with the zebra example, the problem is not the short burst of stress when the zebra runs from the lion, but what would happen if the stress response stayed switched on long after the threat had passed.

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In humans, this can happen through ongoing worries, social stress, uncertainty, deadlines, or repeated exposure to difficult situations without adequate recovery, Karner says. Over time, this can disrupt the systems that regulate stress hormones and affect the brain, immune system, and gut microbiome.

“A more diverse microbiome may be more resilient to these disruptions,” Karner adds, “but...more research is needed to understand how microbiome diversity influences the transition from short-term adaptive stress responses to the negative consequences of chronic stress.”

The microbiome is only one part of the stress response

Genetics play a role in how you experience stress, according to Riley. Humans evolved stress responses that helped our ancestors react quickly to potential threats, and individual genetic differences can influence how reactive those systems are. “We have individual differences,” Sinha says. “Some genes are more reactive, and some other genes are less reactive in different people.”

Experiences beginning even before birth may also influence how the body responds to stress. This can happen in part through epigenetics—chemical changes that affect how genes are expressed without changing the DNA itself. A 2025 review in Genes, examining 71 studies, found evidence linking traumatic experiences with epigenetic changes involved in stress regulation. However, researchers are still investigating how long those changes persist and whether they can be passed across generations.

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Your lived experiences also contribute to how you handle stress. “From birth, our reactions to stressors are incredibly complex and deeply embedded in the fabric of our minds and bodies,” Riley says. “As we grow, we learn from every experience, and our nervous system pays particular attention to stressful or traumatic experiences.”

But personal experience doesn’t necessarily have to involve trauma. For instance, if someone faints, a person with no medical training may feel very panicked in this situation. On the other hand, if a medical professional saw the same event, “they may feel confident that the risk is low and the situation is manageable,” Riley says.

Temperament and personality also shape how people respond to stress, according to Atwood. A 2016 study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that people higher in neuroticism—the tendency to experience worry and negative emotions—had sharper emotional reactions on stressful days. Those who were more outgoing, organized and self-disciplined, or open to new experiences tended to show smaller emotional spikes. These traits may influence how people interpret and cope with challenges, but they reflect tendencies—not fixed limits on resilience.

Ultimately, no single gene, personality trait, or microbial signature determines how someone will respond under pressure. The stress response reflects a complex interaction between the brain, body, experience, and the demands of the moment—and researchers are only beginning to understand where the gut fits in.