Does subjective social status affect pain thresholds? – an experimental examination

ABSTRACT

Past research regarding the relationship between different constructs of social status and different aspects of pain has yielded divergent results. So far, there are few experimental studies to investigate the causal relationship between social status and pain. Therefore, the present study aimed to examine the effect of perceived social status on pain thresholds by experimentally manipulating participants’ subjective social status (SSS). 51 female undergraduates were randomly assigned to a low- or high-status condition. Participants’ perceived social standing was temporarily elevated (high SSS condition) or reduced (low SSS condition). Before and after experimental manipulation participants’ pressure pain thresholds were assessed. The manipulation check confirmed that participants in the low-status condition reported significantly lower SSS than participants in the high-status condition. A linear mixed model revealed a significant group x time interaction for pain thresholds: Whereas participants’ pain thresholds in the low SSS condition increased post manipulation, pain thresholds of participants in the high SSS condition decreased post manipulation (β = 0.22; 95% CI, 0.002 to 0.432; p < .05). Findings suggest that SSS may have a causal effect on pain thresholds. This effect could either be due to a change in pain perception or a change in pain expression. Future research is needed to determine the mediating factors.

KEYWORDS:

• Subjective social status
• experiment
• pressure pain
• pain threshold
• induced pain

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.