Research in the latest edition of Current Directions in Psychological Science further proves that social pain is just as real as physical pain.
For the study, psychologist Naomi I. Eisenberger and fellow researchers asked female study participants to rate the pain caused by heat stimuli. When the women were looking at pictures of their romantic partners or holding their romantic partners’ hands, they reported less pain. In another experiment the researchers asked participants to take a pill every day and report their “hurt feeling” every evening for three weeks. They found that participants who took acetaminophen like Tylenol daily each day experienced a decrease in “hurt feelings” than control group, who took a placebo.
Eisenberg suggests that social pain has developed as an evolutionary adaption.
“Over the course of evolutionary history,” she said, “social pain may have helped us to avoid social rejection, increasing our connections with others, our inclusion in the social group and ultimately our chances of survival.”
Source: Association for Psychological Science
Heather Rudow is a staff writer for Counseling Today. Email her at hrudow@counseling.org.