Pain can be a self-fulfilling prophecy

“Expect a shot to hurt and it probably will, even if the needle poke isn't really so painful. Brace for a second shot and you'll likely flinch again, even though - second time around - you should know better.

That's the takeaway of a new brain imaging study published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour which found that expectations about pain intensity can become self-fulfilling prophecies. Surprisingly, those false expectations can persist even when reality repeatedly demonstrates otherwise, the study found.

"We discovered that there is a positive feedback loop between expectation and pain," said senior author Tor Wager, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder. "The more pain you expect, the stronger your brain responds to the pain. The stronger your brain responds to the pain, the more you expect."

For decades, researchers have been intrigued with the idea of self-fulfilling prophecy, with studies showing expectations can influence everything from how one performs on a test to how one responds to a medication. The new study is the first to directly model the dynamics of the feedback loop between expectations and pain and the neural mechanisms underlying it.”

Tags: clipping & placebo & pain & Nature Human Behaviour & self-fulfilling prophecies & false expectations & reality & Tor Wager & University of Colorado Boulder