Imagined future social pain hurts more now than imagined future physical pain

Abstract

Social pain has been shown to be more easily re-lived than physical pain. This study further examined whether social pain could be more easily pre-lived or pre-experienced than physical pain. Participants were instructed to pre-live a socially or physically painful event and report their feelings of pain. Consistent with our hypotheses, social pain is easily pre-lived, but physical pain is not. In addition, individuals with more vivid mental imageries reported higher levels of pain after pre-living a socially painful event than those with less vivid mental imagery; such a difference was not observed after pre-living a physically painful event. The discussion was centered on the theoretical and metrological implications of these findings. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.