Stability of the isotropic pressure condition

We investigate the conditions for the (in)stability of the isotropic pressure condition in collapsing spherically symmetric, dissipative fluid distributions. It is found that dissipative fluxes, and/or energy density inhomogeneities and/or the appearance of shear in the fluid flow, force any initially isotropic configuration to abandon such a condition, generating anisotropy in the pressure. To reinforce this conclusion we also present some arguments concerning the axially symmetric case. The consequences of our results are analyzed.