Cognitive manipulation of pain

Abstract The experiment tests the notion that naturally occurring states of physiological arousal are manipulable in the same way that drug-induced arousal states have proven to be. The state of arousal studied is that produced by pain from electric shock. All subjects were given a placebo before the shock experience and half were told that the side effects would cause arousal symptoms such as palpitation, tremor, etc. The other half expected no such symptoms. Subjects believing themselves to be in an artificial state of arousal failed to attribute their shock-created arousal to the shock, and found the shock less painful and were willing to tolerate more of it. This “relabeling” of a naturally occurring state was shown to occur only for subjects in a relatively low state of fear.