The Psychology of Pain: "I didn’t mean it!"
There’s a phrase we hear all the time, and one that suggests something about our psychological makeup: we’re not just concerned with actions, but with their attendant mens rea – or lack thereof – as well. If it wasn’t intentional, then it’s not as painful.
And, as it turns out, that is quite literally true: Harvard researchers Kurt Gray and Daniel Wegner recently found that we experience greater pain when we perceive it to be deliberately inflicted, rather than by accident.
In their clever experiment, they had volunteers perform a variety of tasks, including an assessment of discomfort. This involved receiving electric shocks and then rating them on a 1 to 7 scale. When participants thought their “study partner” (who was actually a research accomplice) had selected the task for them to complete, they rated their perceived pain as higher (Mean ratings = 3.62) than when they were told the selection was computer-generated the pain was lower (Mean ratings = 3.00).
What’s more, deliberate pain was not just more acute, it also lasted longer: whereas participants rated the unintentional shocks less and less unpleasant as the experiment progressed, the intentional shocks remained just as painful.
So next time you are at the doctor try to think that he or she really cares about you.
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It isn’t just the psychology of pain that is relevant here, but also the physiology of pain. While I am not in the medical field, I would love to read comments from those who are.
Anecdotally, I’ve been told that if you are aware that you are going to be involved in an accident you are more likely to suffer an injury and more likely to suffer a severe injury. Whereas if the accident takes you completely unawares, you are more likely to walk away with minimal damages. How many stories are there of intoxicated or sleepy drivers who are thrown from their vehicles and walk away with minor cuts and bruises while others in similar crashes are severely injured or even killed?
Pain will trigger a physiological stress response. Anticipation of pain will also trigger a stress response. Is this, perhaps, what your study participants are experiencing? I wonder how much this influences the reactions of the study participants? Is anticpation of pain amplifying the perceived response? Perhaps the anticipation of pain is amplifying the physiological response?
This is not to discount the irrationality of the reactions, but perhaps there are physiological reasons that contribute significantly to the “irrational” response.
If there are physiological reasons that support the “irrational” response in this case. Are there additional physiological elements at the root of many other behavioral irrationalities?
I find the intentionality here interest. As in when someone feels they are the “victim” of an intentional choice, they experience greater pain than if they are simply the victim of a random occurrence. I suppose I find the effect of the intentionality of others on our own feelings as the most interesting here.
I wonder if works in reverse? Am I extra happy if I get a free cookie that someone specifically chose to give me than I am if I randomly receive a free cookie? I suspect so, it’s the aspect of feeling special.
I just got your book and am reading through the first chapter. You mention there that if a nurse pulled off bandages slowly over a longer period of time, it hurts less than if the bandages were pulled off faster.
I was wondering if it would not be better to have multiple nurses all pulling off bandages slowly on different parts of the body ? Can the human brain concentrate on more than one sensory input at a time ?
While I have not been subjected to large amounts of pain, I grew up walking barefoot and would often get thorns on my legs. One of the tricks my mom would do was to distract me while she pulled out the thorns. Once I got two thorns on my feet and my mother got someone else to help so that both thorns could be pulled out simultaneously – her reasoning being that a child could only concentrate on one pain at a time so pulling two thorns out would hurt about the same as pulling one out.In my experience, she was right. No idea if it generalizes.
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