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People's perceptions of pain can shape yours

2026-03-17 07:52:00, Sociale CNA

The perceptions of others can directly influence how we experience pain or mental distress, according to a new scientific study.

If you're waiting for a vaccine and hear the person in front of you complaining of severe pain, it can make your experience more unpleasant. Researchers have found that social information – what others say about an experience – plays an important role in shaping our expectations and actual feelings.

The study, recently published in a prestigious scientific journal, was based on laboratory experiments with 111 participants. That group was presented with supposed ratings from other people about the level of pain or difficulty of a task. In reality, these ratings were random and had no relation to the real experience.

Participants were faced with three types of tasks: applying heat to their arm, watching videos of people experiencing pain, and mental tasks such as comparing 3D objects. The results showed that they tended to experience more pain or difficulty when they believed that others had experienced it in the same way.

According to researchers, this phenomenon is related to "confirmation bias," where individuals tend to believe and reinforce information that matches their expectations, while ignoring data that contradicts them.

These findings have particular relevance in everyday life. For example, if an activity is repeatedly described as difficult, people may experience it as more challenging than it actually is. Similarly, misperceptions can lead to underestimating the pain of others.

Experts warn that at a time when social networks and the media strongly influence public opinions, these psychological mechanisms can create "self-fulfilling prophecies" - expectations that directly affect the real experiences of individuals.

In conclusion, the study highlights the importance of being critical of social information and aware of the impact that expectations can have on how we feel and experience the world around us./ CNA