Faculty of Philosophy, Pain Research Group, Institute of Psychology, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland.
Pain Med. 2022 Jan 3;23(1):81-88. doi: 10.1093/pm/pnab299.
Placebo analgesia can be induced by social observational learning. The aim of this study was to determine whether this effect can be influenced by the social status of a model.
Healthy volunteers were randomly assigned to three groups: a group that observed a video featuring a high-status model (introduced as a professor), a group that observed a video featuring a low-status model (introduced as a janitor), and a control group. Participants observed videos showing a model (of high or low status) undergoing the experimental procedure, during which he received pain stimuli. In each group, half of participants watched a video in which the model rated blue stimuli as more painful (6-8 on the numeric rating scale) and orange stimuli as less painful (1-3 on the numeric rating scale), whereas the other half of participants watched a video in which the model rated orange stimuli as more painful and blue stimuli as less painful. Participants in the control group did not watch any video. Then, all participants received 16 electrocutaneous pain stimuli of the same intensity, preceded by either blue or orange colors. The perceived social status of the model and the trait empathy of participants were measured.
Placebo analgesia was induced in both experimental groups, yet no difference in the magnitude of the effect was found. However, we found that the participants' individual ratings of the model's social status predicted the magnitude of placebo analgesia.
This is the first study to show that the perception of a model's social status is related to the magnitude of placebo analgesia induced by observational learning.
安慰剂镇痛可以通过社会观察学习来诱导。本研究旨在确定这种效应是否可以受到模型社会地位的影响。
健康志愿者被随机分配到三组：一组观察一个高地位模型（被介绍为教授）的视频，一组观察一个低地位模型（被介绍为看门人）的视频，以及一组对照组。参与者观察视频，视频中显示一个模型（地位高或低）接受实验刺激。在每组中，一半的参与者观看一个视频，其中模型将蓝色刺激评为更痛（数字评定量表上的 6-8），将橙色刺激评为更不痛（数字评定量表上的 1-3），而另一半参与者观看一个视频，其中模型将橙色刺激评为更痛，蓝色刺激评为更不痛。对照组的参与者不观看任何视频。然后，所有参与者都接受了相同强度的 16 次电皮肤痛刺激，刺激前呈现蓝色或橙色。测量了模型的感知社会地位和参与者的特质同理心。
在两个实验组中都诱导了安慰剂镇痛，但未发现效应大小的差异。然而，我们发现参与者对模型社会地位的个体评价预测了观察学习诱导的安慰剂镇痛的程度。
这是第一项表明模型感知社会地位与观察学习诱导的安慰剂镇痛程度有关的研究。
