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Underpredicting pain: an experimental investigation into the benefits and risks
Kaya J Peerdeman1,2, Andrew L Geers3, Delia Della Porta1
1Unit Health, Medical and Neuropsychology, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands.
Pain
|January 20, 2021
Summary
Even strong underpredictions of pain can reduce experienced pain intensity through assimilation. However, this effect is not significantly greater than medium underpredictions and can decrease trust.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Pain Research
Background:
- Expectancies significantly influence subjective experiences, including pain.
- Assimilation effects occur when experiences align with expectations, while contrast effects occur when they diverge.
- Previous research has explored contrast effects but not extensively in the context of pain underprediction.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of strong underpredictions of pain on experienced pain intensity.
- To assess related psychological and physiological outcomes, such as certainty of expectations, fear of pain, and trust.
- To compare the effects of strong versus medium pain underpredictions.
Main Methods:
- Healthy participants received verbal suggestions about the expected intensity of heat stimuli (correct prediction, medium underprediction, strong underprediction).
- Experienced pain intensity and related outcomes (expectations, fear, unpleasantness, autonomic responses, trust) were measured.
- Two studies were conducted with 81 and 123 participants, respectively.
Main Results:
- Strong underprediction of pain led to assimilation, reducing experienced pain intensity compared to correct predictions.
- Underpredictions also lowered expected pain, fear of pain, and pain unpleasantness.
- However, strong underpredictions decreased certainty of expectations and trust in the experimenter, with no significant difference from medium underpredictions.
Conclusions:
- Underpredicting pain can reduce its intensity, demonstrating an assimilation effect.
- While effective, strong underpredictions do not offer significantly greater pain reduction than medium ones.
- Healthcare providers should be cautious with overly positive information regarding painful procedures due to potential trust erosion.
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