Exposure to Virtual Social Stimuli Modulates Subjective Pain Reports

Vigil, Jacob M.; Torres, Daniel M.; Wolff, Alexander; Hughes, Katy

doi:10.1155/2014/815056

Cited by 8 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Sex differences in the expression of pain and pain empathizing behaviors (i.e., displays of vulnerability and appeasement) fit this pattern and the general hypothesis that females are more sensitive to interchange trustworthiness cues for maintaining their more consolidated and intimate network structures (Vigil 2008(Vigil , 2009bVigil and Coulombe 2011;Vigil and Strenth 2014). This hypothesis is consistent with recent findings that people express pain differently to male and female audiences (e.g., medical staff and experimenters), and men and women share distinct associations between core elements of their social experiences (e.g., quantity and quality of intimate relationships) and experimental pain reporting (Vigil 2011;Vigil and Alcock 2014;Vigil and Coulombe 2011;Vigil et al 2014a, c;2014d).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

The Curse of Curves

Vigil

Strenth

Mueller

et al. 2015

Hum Nat

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This study examines the associations between objective and subjective measurements and impressions of body shape and cold pressor pain reporting in healthy adults. On the basis of sexual selection theory (SST), we hypothesized that body characteristics that are universally preferred by the opposite sex-specifically, lower waist-to-hip ratios (WHR) in women and higher shoulder-to-hip ratios (SHR) in men-and characteristics (e.g., proportion of body fat in women) that infer attractiveness differently across cultures will correspond to higher experimental pain reporting in women and lower pain reporting in males. A convenience sample of young adults (n= 96, 58 females, 18-24 years; mean age=19.4) was measured for body mass index (BMI), WHR, SHR, and subjective body impressions (SBI), along with cold pressor pain reporting. The findings showed that BMI was positively associated with WHR and less-positive SBI in both sexes. Consistent with SST, however, only BMI and WHR predicted variability in pain expression in women, whereas only SHR predicted variability in men. Subjective body impressions were positively associated with SHR among males and unrelated to WHR among females, yet only females showed a positive association between SBI and higher pain reporting. The findings suggest that sexually selected physical characteristics (WHR and SHR) and culturally influenced somatic (BMI) and psychological (SBI) indicators of attractiveness correspond with variability in pain reporting, potentially reflecting the general tendency for people to express clusters of sexually selected and culturally influenced traits that may include differential pain perception.Hum Nat

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

The Curse of Curves

Vigil

Strenth

Mueller

et al. 2015

Hum Nat

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“…In other words, persons who respond to a solicitation evoked by a pain expression are perceived as potentially more reliable social partners. To date, this social-signaling perspective of pain perception has been used (with relative success) for predicting individual differences that influence the expression of pain in various social contexts, such as audience characteristics (Vigil & Alcock 2014;Vigil & Coulombe 2011;Vigil et al 2014b) and the simulated presence of another person (e.g., the sound of a stranger's voice; see Vigil et al 2014d).…”

Section: Jacob M Vigil and Eric Krugermentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural group selection plays an essential role in explaining human cooperation: A sketch of the evidence

Richerson¹,

Baldini²,

Bell³

et al. 2014

Behav Brain Sci

488

499

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Human cooperation is highly unusual. We live in large groups composed mostly of non-relatives. Evolutionists have proposed a number of explanations for this pattern, including cultural group selection and extensions of more general processes such as reciprocity, kin selection, and multi-level selection acting on genes. Evolutionary processes are consilient; they affect several different empirical domains, such as patterns of behavior and the proximal drivers of that behavior. In this target article, we sketch the evidence from five domains that bear on the explanatory adequacy of cultural group selection and competing hypotheses to explain human cooperation. Does cultural transmission constitute an inheritance system that can evolve in a Darwinian fashion? Are the norms that underpin institutions among the cultural traits so transmitted? Do we observe sufficient variation at the level of groups of considerable size for group selection to be a plausible process? Do human groups compete, and do success and failure in competition depend upon cultural variation? Do we observe adaptations for cooperation in humans that most plausibly arose by cultural group selection? If the answer to one of these questions is "no," then we must look to other hypotheses. We present evidence, including quantitative evidence, that the answer to all of the questions is "yes" and argue that we must take the cultural group selection hypothesis seriously. If culturally transmitted systems of rules (institutions) that limit individual deviance organize cooperation in human societies, then it is not clear that any extant alternative to cultural group selection can be a complete explanation.Keywords: competition; culture; evolution; group selection; heritable variation; institutions; norms BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES (2016) KARL FROST is a Ph.D. candidate in Ecology at the University of California, Davis. He researches the cultural evolution of prosociality via religion and ritual practices, using behavioral experiments, gene-culture coevolution models, and field research in Canada looking at environmental activism in the face of the tar sands oil industry and an antagonistic government. He also directs the Body Research Physical Theater and is interested in cross-cultural exchange of theater practice as theater anthropology and arts-science fusion.

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“…Cold pressor procedures. As described in previous studies e.g., [21,33] a pain assessment program was used and instructing participants to perform two simultaneous actions, when participants first begin the CPT (once the researcher has exited the room) and at the end of the task (indicating pain tolerance). Participants first indicated a baseline pain intensity score along a standard visual analog scale (VAS, 0-10 from no pain to worst pain imaginable), and simultaneously submerged their left hand into the CPT device.…”

Section: Condition 3 (Moderate Pain/orthotic Distractor)mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Confounding Effect of Assessor Ethnicity on Subjective Pain Reporting in Women

Vigil¹,

Coulombe²,

Rowell³

et al. 2017

TOATJ

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The current study examines how subjective pain reporting is influenced by the concordant and discordant nature of the ethnic identities of pain expressers (participants) and pain assessors (experimenters). Three discomfort conditions that varied in stimuli intensity (Study 1: mild pain; Study 2: severe pain), and distraction components (Study 3) were used to assess whether pain intensity and tolerance reporting differ with the ethnic identification of the participant and the experimenter. Specifically, 87 Hispanic and 74 Non-Hispanic White (NHW) women (18–51 yrs., Mage = 20.0, SD = 4.3) underwent a cold pressor pain task (CPT) after engaging in minimal procedural interactions with one of the 22 research experimenters (47% Hispanic, 42% females). The procedural interactions with the experimenters included only consenting and instructions, with no interaction between experimenter and participant during the actual CPT. Random-effects models showed that between the 0% and 18% of the variance in pain sensitivity (intensity and tolerance scores) was attributable to characteristics of the experimenters. Controlling for self-esteem, baseline pain levels, and the gender of the experimenter, Hispanic subjects showed higher pain sensitivity (as marked by lower pain tolerance and higher pain intensity scores) following interactions with an NHW rather than a Hispanic experimenter in response to the most severe pain intensity stimuli. These results question the validity of common findings of ethnic differences in pain sensitivity from studies that have not accounted for the ethnic identity of the pain assessor (and the general communicative nature of pain reporting).

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Exposure to Virtual Social Stimuli Modulates Subjective Pain Reports

Abstract: Further research on how contextual factors, such as the vocal properties of health care examiners and exposure to background voices, may influence momentary pain perception is necessary for creating more standardized methods for measuring patient pain reports in clinical settings.

Cited by 8 publications

References 41 publications

The Curse of Curves

The Curse of Curves

Cultural group selection plays an essential role in explaining human cooperation: A sketch of the evidence

The Confounding Effect of Assessor Ethnicity on Subjective Pain Reporting in Women

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