Alleviating Social Pain: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Forgiveness and Acetaminophen

Research has suggested that physical pain (e.g., caused by injury) and social pain (e.g., caused by social rejection) are modulated by some of the same biological systems. Consequently, it is possible that acetaminophen, which is commonly used to alleviate physical pain through neurochemical pathways, may have social pain-relieving effects that interact with forgiveness, which reduces social pain through psychological pathways. To date, however, only a few studies have examined how experiences of social pain change over time, and none have examined how acetaminophen and forgiveness interact to influence these effects.

We addressed these issues by investigating how acetaminophen administration and daily forgiveness are associated with experiences of social pain over 21 days. We hypothesized that acetaminophen-related reductions in social pain across the 21-day study period would be greatest on days following high levels of forgiveness.

To test this hypothesis, we conducted a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial in which we randomly assigned 42 healthy young adults to an acetaminophen condition (1,000 mg of acetaminophen daily), placebo-control condition (400 mg of potassium daily), or empty-control (no pill) condition. We then assessed their levels of forgiveness and social pain for 20 consecutive days.

As hypothesized, acetaminophen reduced participants' social pain levels over time but only for those exhibiting high levels of forgiveness (i.e., 18.5% reduction in social pain over 20 days).

These data are the first to show that forgiveness and acetaminophen have interactive effects on experiences of social pain, which is one of the most common and impactful of all human experiences.