Douglas Granger, Chancellor’s Professor of psychological science, pediatrics, and public health and director of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research co-writes for the Association for Psychological Science:
In recent decades, the integration of salivary bioscience and psychological science has had a profound impact on our understanding of the interactions between the psychological, social, and physiological factors of health (e.g., Hoyt & Zimmerman, 2020). In addition to its relevance to a wide range of research topics within psychological science—from the psychobiology of the stress response, to studies of genetics and environmental chemicals—saliva boasts a number of practical advantages as a biospecimen as well. It’s not only easy to collect in the lab, but its portability allows samples to be collected in the context of people’s everyday social worlds. In addition, repeated samplings can be obtained from the same individual with low participant burden, and samples can even be self-collected in the field and returned by mail.
Enter the disruptor—the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to 2020, another advantage of saliva as a biospecimen was safety.