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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 14, 2026

Burn Injury-Induced Pain and Depression-Like Behavior in Mice

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Published on: September 29, 2021

Painful consequences of anger suppression.

Phillip J Quartana¹, John W Burns

¹Department of Psychology, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, North Chicago, IL 60064, USA. phillip.quartana@rfums.org

Emotion (Washington, D.C.)

|May 23, 2007

Summary

Suppressing anger may intensify pain perception. Trying to suppress anger can paradoxically increase pain sensitivity, making it feel more irritating and frustrating.

Area of Science:

Psychology
Pain Perception Research

Background:

Ironic process theory suggests that suppressing thoughts can increase their accessibility.
Anger suppression may influence how individuals perceive and experience pain.

Purpose of the Study:

To experimentally investigate the impact of anger suppression on pain perception.
To test the hypothesis that suppressing anger amplifies pain sensitivity.

Main Methods:

Participants were assigned to non-suppression, experiential suppression, or expressive suppression conditions.
Tasks included mental arithmetic with or without harassment, followed by a cold-pressor pain task.

Main Results:

Anger suppression (experiential or expressive) during harassment led to the highest reported pain levels.

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Suppressed anger uniquely amplified anger-specific dimensions of pain.

Conclusions:

Attempts to suppress anger may paradoxically increase pain sensitivity.
Suppression tactics can augment the perception of pain's irritating and frustrating qualities.