Abstract
The present studies investigated the impact of medical and psychosocial information
on the observer’s estimations of pain, emotional responses, and behavioral tendencies
toward another person in pain. Participants were recruited from the community (study
1: N = 39 women, 10 men; study 2: N = 41 women, 12 men) and viewed videos of 4 patients
expressing pain, paired with vignettes describing absence or presence of 1) medical
evidence for the pain and 2) psychosocial influences on the pain experience. A similar
methodology was used for studies 1 and 2, except for the explicit manipulation of
the presence/absence of psychosocial influences in study 2. For each patient video,
participant estimations of each patient’s pain and their own distress, sympathy, and
inclination to help were assessed. In both studies, results indicated lower ratings
on all measures when medical evidence for pain was absent. Overall, no effect of psychosocial
influences was found, except in study 2 where participants indicated feeling less
distress when psychosocial influences were present. The findings suggest that pain
is taken less seriously when there is no medical evidence for the pain. The findings
are discussed in terms of potential mechanisms underlying pain estimations as well
as implications for caregiving behavior.
Perspective
The present studies indicate that observers take the pain of others less seriously
in the absence of clear medical evidence for the pain. These findings are important
to further understand the social context in which pain for which there is no clear
medical explanation is experienced.
Key words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 05, 2012
Accepted:
September 15,
2012
Received in revised form:
September 10,
2012
Received:
July 13,
2012
Footnotes
This study was supported by a grant from the Fund for Scientific Research (FWO)–Flanders (G.0299.09). Tine Vervoort is postdoctoral researcher of the Fund for Scientific Research, Flanders.
There are no conflicts of interest that may arise as a result of the research presented in this manuscript.
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 American Pain Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
