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Background : The Social Self Preservation Theory posits that situations that threaten the ‘social self’ elicit shame which, in turn, is linked to cortisol stress response. Body esteem may be one predictor of the propensity to respond with shame to stress. Hence, the present study aimed at assessing whether body esteem is associated with cortisol stress responses, and further, whether this relationship is mediated by cognitive appraisals of challenge and threat. Methods : We exposed 44 participants (21 F, 21±2 years) to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Salivary cortisol was assessed at −1, +1, +10, +30, and +50 min. Body esteem (BE) as well as subscales addressing appearance, weight, and attribution of others’ judgments were assessed with the Body Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adults (BESAA). Appraisals of challenge and threat were assessed with the Primary and Secondary Appraisal Scale (PASA). Results : While the TSST successfully elicited cortisol stress responses (F=6.85, p=0.001), hierarchical regression analysis revealed that females with low BE showed higher cortisol stress responses than females with high BE, while the opposite was true for males (β = 0.44, p=0.047). The same pattern was found for the two BE subscales addressing weight and overall appearance (β = 0.42, p=0.04; β = 0.42, p=0.04), but not for the attribution subscale (p<0.24). Body esteem was also associated with challenge appraisals in a gender-dependent manner: males with high BE reported feeling less challenged, while females with high BE reported feeling more challenged (β = − 0.63, p=0.005). Neither threat nor challenge scores were themselves linked to cortisol responses. Conclusions : Despite the strong social-evaluative component of our stress test, these findings suggest that how one feels about one's weight and overall physical appearance matters more than what one thinks others may think in this regard. Interestingly, those feelings and beliefs may be associated with gender differences in stress appraisal, such that for females, high BE may be stress protective, while for men, low BE may lead to disengagement from a stressful situation.