Wednesday, February 22, 2012

People Discount Pain in Those They Dislike: Study

(Medical News Today) UPDATED 2011-10-04
According to a new study in the medical journal Pain, people are more likely to underestimate a person's pain intensity and to be slightly less sympathetic to that person's pain if he or she is not considered "likeable." Researchers recruited 40 people and showed them pictures of six different patients who were tagged with simple descriptions. Some of the descriptions were positive, others were neutral, and others were negative. The participants were then shown a video of the patients having assessments of their shoulder pain. The investigators found that patients who'd been given negative descriptive words were more likely to be found as unlikable by the study participants. These unlikable patients were also more likely to have their pain described  as less intense, and study participants were less sensitive to these patients' perceived pain.  Read full story >
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