An experimental study with placebo painkillers by researchers at the University of Vienna indicates that people are less willing to help if they supposedly take painkillers. According to the study, this is the first time a relationship has been established between the experience of pain and the willingness to help.
Those who feel less pain also have less sympathy for the pain of others: The link between pain perception and pain empathy has been known for a long time and has been confirmed by placebo experiments, the University of Vienna said on Wednesday. People are given pills that they think will relieve the pain, but are missing the active ingredient.
Willingness to help decreases
The new study from the team led by neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists Claus Lamm and Helena Hartmann examined how this association affects actual willingness to help. In the experiment, 90 subjects observed how other people apparently received electric shocks. However, they were able to reduce the number of stimulations by squeezing a power meter. Half of the study participants had previously received a placebo pain reliever. Even the belief that you have taken a painkiller measurably reduces your own sensitivity to pain, as has been shown in previous studies.
The experiment by Hartmann, Lamm and colleagues now showed that subjects who had taken the placebo were less willing to help the other person if they could only slightly reduce the other’s perceived pain – ie, only by an electric shock. Also, the placebo group would have pressed the power meter less hard on average than the control group, which received no “painkillers”.
According to the research team, the subjects’ empathy for each other is crucial. This is dampened by the placebo, leading to a lower willingness to help. “Previous studies had already shown that such a fake drug reduces empathy. Our experiment now shows for the first time that this also reduces the willingness to actually help themselves, based on this reduced empathy,” Hartmann says.
Problems with chronic diseases?
The study, published Wednesday in the journal Psychological Science, suggests that even taking painkillers once can influence behavior towards others. This can have consequences for people who are (regularly) under the influence of painkillers, such as people with chronic pain. “If this is confirmed for real painkillers and in studies outside the lab, this negative social side effect should be made public,” Lamm emphasized.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
