The Psychological Mechanism Of Pain-elicited Aggression

Pain,as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience,considerably modulates one's cognitive functions and social behaviors.However,little has been know about how pain influences aggression.The present research examines the impact of pain on aggressive behavior.In particular,we sought to provide a psychological mechanism of physical pain-elicited aggression from cognitive,emotional and social perspectives.The voodoo doll task and social network aggression task were used to measure participants' aggressive behavior.In study 1 and study 2,participants were manipulated into pain condition(induced by Capsaicin)or control condition(with hand cream).Then participants were asked to choose pins to insert in the voodoo doll.In study 2,the stroop task and multisourse interference task were used to measure participants' executive function and self-control capacity.In study 3 and study 4,we primed pain and non-pain participants with positive emotion or positive social feedback and examined their choices of pins in the voodoo doll or noise blast volumes to the strangers.In study 1 and study 2,compared with non-pain group,pain group participants used more number of pins in voodoo doll task and induced more negative emotion.In study2,no statistically significant associations were found between pain and executive function or pain and self-control capacity.Next in study 3 and study 4,we replicated the findings of the study1 and study 2 with pain group participants behavior more aggressive than non-pain participants.Moreover,in study 3,compared with the neutral emotion,pain group participants who had been primed with positive emotion used less number of pins in voodoo doll task.In study 4,compared with the negative and neutral social feedback,pain group participants who had been primed with positive social feedback send less noise blast volumes in social network aggression task.Lastly,Pain group participants liked positive feedback more than non-pain participants.Taken together,results showed that pain leads to aggressive behavior.Pain-elicited aggression was as a consequence of negative emotion and was a action that depended on social context but was not due to deficit of cognitive inhibition.This research demonstrated a role of the positive emotion and social evaluation in the regulation of pain-elicited aggression.