Neuroscience
The physical effect of pain can be alleviated by verbal reassurance from another person but only if they are someone we identify with. The new finding by Michael Platow and colleagues at the Australian National University demonstrates the significant role of social psychology in pain perception and could have important implications for placebo treatments.
Fifty-four science students held their hand in icy water for as long as they could, up to a limit of 130 seconds, imposed for ethical reasons. Then a confederate of the researchers appeared, posing as either a science or arts student who had done the experiment earlier. They told the participants that the second go at the ice bath was 'much easier'. A control group didn't receive any reassurance. The participants then held their hand in the icy water for a second time.
After reassurance from another student, the pain of the second ice bath provoked far less physical arousal in the participants (as measured by the sweatiness of their dry hand) than it had done the first time around, but only if that reassurance came from another science student, not if it came from an arts student. The control group didn't show any reduction in arousal.
The reassurance didn't have any effect on how long the students were able to hold their hands in the water for, but that is probably because so many of them were able to keep their hand in the water for the entire 130 second limit, even on the first exposure.
“Our research suggests that the relative success of verbal communications, such as placebo communications, is likely to obtain primarily, if not solely, when administered from in-group members,” the researchers said.
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Platow, M.J., Voudouris, N.J., Coulson, M., Gilford, N., Jamieson, R., Najdovski, L., Papeleo, N., Pollard, N. & Terry, L. (2007). In-group reassurance in a pain setting produces lower levels of physiological arousal: Direct support for self-categorisation analysis of social influence. European Journal of Social Psychology, 37, 649-660.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
Image credit: Wellcome Library, London.
BELL, Sir Charles (1774-1842) Sir C. Bell, the anatomy and philosophy of expression as connected with the fine arts. London: John Murray, 1844. Page 157 - pain.
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Neuroscience
Verbal reassurance can dull the effect of pain, but only if it's from someone we identify with
The physical effect of pain can be alleviated by verbal reassurance from another person but only if they are someone we identify with. The new finding by Michael Platow and colleagues at the Australian National University demonstrates the significant role of social psychology in pain perception and could have important implications for placebo treatments.Fifty-four science students held their hand in icy water for as long as they could, up to a limit of 130 seconds, imposed for ethical reasons. Then a confederate of the researchers appeared, posing as either a science or arts student who had done the experiment earlier. They told the participants that the second go at the ice bath was 'much easier'. A control group didn't receive any reassurance. The participants then held their hand in the icy water for a second time.
After reassurance from another student, the pain of the second ice bath provoked far less physical arousal in the participants (as measured by the sweatiness of their dry hand) than it had done the first time around, but only if that reassurance came from another science student, not if it came from an arts student. The control group didn't show any reduction in arousal.
The reassurance didn't have any effect on how long the students were able to hold their hands in the water for, but that is probably because so many of them were able to keep their hand in the water for the entire 130 second limit, even on the first exposure.
“Our research suggests that the relative success of verbal communications, such as placebo communications, is likely to obtain primarily, if not solely, when administered from in-group members,” the researchers said.
_________________________________
Platow, M.J., Voudouris, N.J., Coulson, M., Gilford, N., Jamieson, R., Najdovski, L., Papeleo, N., Pollard, N. & Terry, L. (2007). In-group reassurance in a pain setting produces lower levels of physiological arousal: Direct support for self-categorisation analysis of social influence. European Journal of Social Psychology, 37, 649-660.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
Image credit: Wellcome Library, London.
BELL, Sir Charles (1774-1842) Sir C. Bell, the anatomy and philosophy of expression as connected with the fine arts. London: John Murray, 1844. Page 157 - pain.
- Cope With Pain By Changing How You Picture It
Most people who suffer from serious pain have one or more mental images that they associate with the discomfort and what it represents to them. A new study by Clare Philips and Debbie Samsom has shown that these pain-sufferers can be taught to re-imagine...
- Why It's So Difficult To Reassure People With Medically-unexplained Symptoms
Doctors face a fundamental hurdle when seeking to reassure patients with medically-unexplained symptoms that they are physically well. Apparently such patients have a problem remembering information about how likely it is that they or other people have...
- The 'pain' Of Rejection
"From the Archives", first published in the Digest 10.11.03. When rock group REM sing "everybody hurts sometimes" they are, of course, referring to the inevitability of emotional anguish rather than our shared need to occasionally reach for the paracetemol....
- Imaging The Brain To Control The Mind
For the first time anywhere in the world, psychologists at California-based company Omneuron and Stanford University have demonstrated that people can be taught how to reduce their experience of pain with the aid of real-time images of their brain activity....
- Feeling Other People's Pain
When we watch someone else being pricked by a needle in their hand, the corticospinal motor neurons connected to that specific part of our own hand are inhibited, just as they would be if we’d been injected ourselves. It’s as though our brain has...