Pain offset reduces rumination in response to evoked anger and sadness

Four studies examined whether pain offset reduces rumination in response to anger or sadness. Past research has demonstrated that, following the offset of pain, individuals show a distinct state of relief involving both reduction in negative affect and an increase in positive affect. This response may help to explain why people sometimes seek out pain and discomfort (e.g., vigorous exercise, self-harm) to regulate negative emotion and suggests that following pain people should recover better from negative emotional states. To test this, we examined ruminative responses to anger and sadness. These negative, approach-related emotions often produce rumination; a response that is generally considered maladaptive. In Study 1, pain was manipulated through a cold pressor task, and participants were induced to experience anger through autobiographical recall. In Study 2, pain was also manipulated pain via a cold pressor task, and anger and sadness were induced through social exclusion using the Cyberball paradigm. In Study 3, pain was manipulated by squeezing exercise handgrips, and sadness was induced with imagery from a sad video. Study 4 replicated the methods of Study 3 and added measures of relief and distraction to examine whether these moderated the effect. A minimeta-analysis showed that, across all studies, individuals engaged in less rumination in the pain conditions as measured by a thought-listing task and a self-reported rumination questionnaire. These results suggest that the regulation of anger and sadness are improved following pain offset. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).