Inducing bias modulates sensitivity to nonverbal cues of others' pain

There is ample research to support the existence of bias in the perception of others' pain. Both studies involving health-care professionals and student surrogate samples have found that, firstly, pain is under-perceived when using nonverbal cues to gauge another's suffering and, secondly, that personal characteristics of both the viewer and the target (such as gender) can bias pain perception, affecting the allocation of help. However, the extant research shows conflicts about the direction of the bias that target gender exerts on pain perception. Our study aims to address these challenges by examining whether under-perception of pain can be attenuated or exacerbated with gender primes and how target gender affects nonverbal pain perception, in particular.

University students (N = 120) were primed with either masculine, neutral, or feminine concepts followed by photos of male and female targets displaying various levels of pain and asked to quantify the photographed targets' distress.

Participants perceived lower target distress when this task was preceded by a masculine gender prime, as compared to a neutral or feminine gender prime. Pain was underestimated for all targets; however, this underestimation was significantly more pronounced for female targets.

These results suggest that gender cues may influence the perception of observed pain and, as a result, clinical decision making. They also support the conjecture that nonverbal pain cues may be under-perceived in women.