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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 16, 2026

Investigating Pain-Related Avoidance Behavior using a Robotic Arm-Reaching Paradigm

Investigating Pain-Related Avoidance Behavior using a Robotic Arm-Reaching Paradigm

Published on: October 3, 2020

Avoiding Pain to Others Motivates Effortful Prosocial Behavior.

Claudia Massaccesi^1,2, Lei Zhang^1,3,4,5, Giorgia Silani⁶

¹Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

|October 1, 2025

Summary

Individuals exert similar physical effort to reduce their own pain and others' pain. Protecting others from harm motivates effortful prosocial behavior, contrasting with monetary reward scenarios.

Keywords:

effort discounting effort‐based decision‐making harm avoidance pain prosocial behavior social decision‐making

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Last Updated: Jan 16, 2026

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Published on: October 3, 2020

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Published on: June 10, 2013

Area of Science:

Psychology
Neuroscience
Behavioral Economics

Background:

Societal well-being depends on protecting others from harm, which often requires effort.
The decision-making process balancing effort costs against harm avoidance benefits for others is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how individuals decide to exert physical effort to alleviate pain for themselves and others.
To compare effort-based decision-making for self- vs. other-focused pain reduction.

Main Methods:

Participants exerted physical effort (force) to reduce painful electric shocks delivered to themselves and another person.
Willingness to incur effort costs and the amount of force exerted were measured.
Pain reduction by effort was analyzed for self- and other-related choices.

Main Results:

No significant differences were found in participants' willingness to exert effort or the force applied to reduce their own pain versus another person's pain.
Little evidence suggested differential discounting of pain reduction by effort between self- and other-related decisions.
Results contrast with findings on monetary rewards, where less effort is exerted for others.

Conclusions:

Individuals are comparably motivated to exert effort to avoid pain for themselves and others.
Effortful prosocial behavior is significantly motivated by the prospect of preventing harm to others.
The nature of the benefit (pain avoidance vs. monetary gain) critically influences prosocial motivation and effort allocation.