Emotional arousal when watching drama increases pain threshold and social bonding

Abstract

Fiction, whether in the form of storytelling or plays, has a particular attraction for us: we repeatedly return to it and are willing to invest money and time in doing so. Why this is so is an evolutionary enigma that has been surprisingly underexplored. We hypothesize that emotionally arousing drama, in particular, triggers the same neurobiological mechanism (the endorphin system, reflected in increased pain thresholds) that underpins anthropoid primate and human social bonding. We show that, compared to subjects who watch an emotionally neutral film, subjects who watch an emotionally arousing film have increased pain thresholds and an increased sense of group bonding.

Functional Benefits of (Modest) Alcohol Consumption

“…Aside from direct health benefits that might arise from up-regulating the endorphin system, the principal benefit of the social consumption of alcohol may thus be that it acts much like the many other endorphin-stimulating activities that we use for social and community bonding (notably laughter, singing, dancing, and even storytelling: Dunbar et al 2012;Tarr et al 2015Tarr et al , 2016Pearce et al 2015;Dunbar et al 2016). This is not to suggest that alcohol consumption is an adaptation in the formal biological sense, but rather that we discovered how it could be used to trigger a mechanism (the endorphin system) that is an adaptation for social bonding.…”

“…One is that alcohol consumption enhances psychological wellbeing and, directly or indirectly, promotes the building of the close personal bonds that underpin social networks. In other words, it functions much like the many other behavioural mechanisms (including laughter, singing, dancing and storytelling: Dunbar et al 2012;Tarr et al 2015Tarr et al , 2016Pearce et al 2015;Dunbar et al 2016) that are used to trigger the endorphin system so as to facilitate large-scale (i.e. communal as opposed to dyadic) social bonding.…”

Opioidergic Regulation of Emotional Arousal: A Combined PET–fMRI Study

“…To begin with, various social activities have been shown to elevate pain threshold in humans, suggesting that the social activities have triggered release of opioids [36]. For example, social laughter [57], music performance [58], viewing of emotionally engaging movies [59] and rowing with others [60] elevate pain threshold, suggesting that various forms of social affiliation induce enhanced opioidergic processing in humans. While the evidence from these studies is indirect, it has also been shown that the dance-induced elevation of pain threshold can be blocked with naltrexone-pretreatment [61].…”

Breaking Bread: the Functions of Social Eating

“…In respect of the evening meal, they were also asked to say how many people were present (2, 3, 4 or 5+, including themselves) and, on a simple binary choice, whether or not any of the following had occurred during the meal: laughter, reminiscences, jokes, singing, dancing, party games, drinking alcohol or eating chocolate. Laughter, singing, dancing and storytellling are all known to trigger the endorphin system Pearce et al 2015;Tarr et al 2016;Dunbar et al 2016), the main pharmacological factor underpinning social bonding in primates and humans (Curley and Keverne 2005;Depue and Morrone-Strupinsky 2005;Machin and Dunbar 2011). Alcohol is also a major trigger of the endorphin system (Naber et al 1981;Van Ree 1996;Hertz 1997;Gianoulakis 2004) -so much so that an endorphin antagonist such as naltrexone is now the treatment of choice for alcohol addiction (O'Brien et al 1996;Saland et al 2008).…”