Real men are made, not born! Incidental exposure to energy drinks may promote men's tolerance of physical pain

The gender context of pain

Pain is a major source of global suffering, with women bearing the greatest burden. Alongside biology, psychological and social factors, including gender, help explain these differences. However, there has been no direct attempt to develop a unified social psychological model of men and women's pain. By drawing on approaches to both gender and pain, a gender context model of pain is presented. It proposes that pain is partly influenced by the gender context in which it occurs, which operates at both individual and interpersonal levels. The model is used to structure an appraisal of the existing evidence around gender and pain, and explore whether the model helps explain why such variation occurs. It is argued that despite evidence for an association between gender and pain, there are empirical gaps that need to be addressed. Implications and directions for future investigations into sex, gender and pain are considered.

Analgesic effect of Facebook: Priming with online social networking may boost felt relatedness that buffers against physical pain

Social networking sites (SNSs) are extremely popular for providing users with a convenient platform for acquiring social connections and thereby feeling relatedness. Plenty of literature has shown that mental representations of social support can reduce the perception of physical pain. The current study tested whether thinking about SNS would interfere with users' perceptions of experimentally induced pain. Ninety-six undergraduate Facebook users were recruited to participate in a priming-based experiment. They were randomly assigned to one of the three study conditions (SNS prime, neutral prime, or no prime) via rating the aesthetics of logos. The results showed that participants exposed to SNS primes reported less pain of immersion in hot water than did both control groups (neutral- and no-prime). Felt relatedness mediated the link between SNS primes and diminished pain perceptions. This research provides the first demonstration that thinking about SNS can lower experienced physical pain among Facebook users. Online social networking may serve as an analgesic buffer against pain experience than previously thought. The SNS-enabled analgesia has far reaching implications for pain relief applications and the enhancement of well-being in human-interaction techniques.