Communications Psychology (Apr 2024)

Interpersonal physiological and psychological synchrony predict the social transmission of nocebo hyperalgesia between individuals

  • Rodela Mostafa,
  • Nicolas Andrew McNair,
  • Winston Tan,
  • Cosette Saunders,
  • Ben Colagiuri,
  • Kirsten Barnes

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-024-00069-6
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2, no. 1
pp. 1 – 15

Abstract

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Abstract Witnessing another’s pain can heighten pain in the observer. However, research has focused on the observer’s intrapersonal experience. Here, a social transmission-chain explored the spread of socially-acquired nocebo hyperalgesia. Dyads of genuine participants were randomised to ‘Generations’ (G1–G3). G1-Demonstrators, observed by G2-Observers, experienced high/low thermal pain contingent on supposed activity/inactivity of a sham-treatment. G2 became Demonstrators, witnessed by G3-Observers. They experienced fixed low-temperature stimuli irrespective of sham-treatment ‘activity’. G3 then Demonstrated for G4-Observers (a confederate), also experiencing low-temperature stimuli only. Pain ratings, electrodermal activity, and facial action units were measured. G1’s treatment-related pain propagated throughout the chain. G2 and G3 participants showed heightened subjective and physiological response to sham-treatment, despite equivalent stimulus temperatures, and G3 never witnessing the initial pain-event. Dyadic interpersonal physiological synchrony (electrodermal activity) and psychological synchrony (Observer’s ability to predict the Demonstrator’s pain), predicted subsequent socially-acquired pain. Implications relate to the interpersonal spread of maladaptive pain experiences.