Suffering for science: the effects of implicit social demands on response to experimentally induced pain

In two experiments subjects rated their pain during baseline trials of cold pressor and finger pressure pain. After various instructional treatments, they were posttested with these same stimuli. As in previous studies, we found in both experiments that coping suggestions significantly reduced reported pain. Experiment 1, however, demonstrated that subjects often refrained from using available cognitive coping strategies to reduce pain unless they had been given explicit permission to do so. Experiment 2 replicated this finding and also showed that explicit permission to "do whatever you can to reduce pain" was as effective as a coping suggestion in decreasing reported pain. These findings indicate that subjects' interpretation of what is appropriate responding in the test situation determines how they choose to cope with the painful stimulation. Thus standard experimental procedures for assessing baseline levels of pain implicitly lead subjects to refrain from coping and thereby tend to underestimate their ability to control pain. Moreover, suggestions and other instructional techniques for coping with pain may produce much of their effect not by teaching subjects new coping skills but instead by giving them permission to use already available coping strategies.