Challenging the Common View of Pain as Negative

Challenging the Common View of Pain as Negative:

Why Pain is a Good Thing

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Can you imagine a world where you felt no physical pain?
Broke a bone? Painless.
Got hit by a car? Painless.
Got stung by three wasps? Painless.
Spilled boiling water on your hands? Painless.

Some may salivate at the thought of a pain-free life. In today’s society, there is a stigma of pain being a harmful thing that people should generally try to avoid. Believe it or not, the global market of painkiller medications is estimated to reach $26.4 billion by 2022 (PR Newswire 2017). What does this tell you? No one likes to feel pain.

Although the thought of a pain-free life may sound like a utopia, pain is necessary for survival and is hugely beneficial to our wellbeing. This article will discuss several reasons why we need pain in order to survive. By the end of this article, you will be hoping to stub your toe, rather than preventing it from happening (just kidding). But you will understand how pain facilitates pleasure, enables self-regulation, and promotes pro-social behavior.


Benefit #1: Pain Facilitates Pleasure.
You may think that pain prevents pleasure from being felt. But in reality, we need pain in order to feel pleasure.

Pain provides a contrast for which pleasure can be experienced and appreciated.
Since pain is a “bad” feeling, and pleasure is a “good” feeling, pain provides a contrast for pleasure. Thus, when we experience an unpleasant event immediately followed by a pleasant experience, that experience is more pleasant.

Example 1: Have you ever wondered why food tastes so much better after a day of fasting? The meal is exactly the same, but the relief of hunger (a type of pain) is itself a pleasurable experience.
Example 2: Participants in a study were asked to eat a Tim Tam chocolate biscuit after holding their hand in a bucket of ice-cold water for as long as they could. Results showed that people who experienced pain before eating Tim Tams enjoyed it more than those who did not have pain.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/30/dining/tim-tams-biscuits-australian-cookie-us.html

Bastian, Jetten, & Hornsey (2014) Appetite

Pain motivates indulgence in “guilty pleasures”.
Pain provides a justification for indulgence of pleasures that might otherwise arouse a sense of guilt. Research shows that pain actually motivates indulgence in "guilty pleasures".

Example 1: People were asked to hold their hand in a bucket of ice-water. Then they were offered the choice of either a piece of chocolate, or a pen as a gift. Participants who didn't experience any pain chose the pen 74% of the time. But those who experienced pain were much more likely to choose chocolate (Bastian et al., 2012).

Bastian et al., (2012) “Physical Pain and Guilty Pleasures”

Pain, it seems, can make chocolate guilt-free!

Benefit #2: Pain Enables Self-Regulation.

Pain captures our attention and focuses awareness on the immediate event.

https://pixabay.com/en/ouch-comics-onomatopoeia-cartoon-147868/

Imagine dropping a textbook on your toe mid-conversation. Would you finish your conversation or attend to your toe immediately? Pain drags us into the moment and after pain, we are more alert and aware of our sensory environment. Pain is an indication that something is wrong with the body, and alerts us that action is needed to return the body to balance.

Example 1: If we never feel the pain of hunger, then we wouldn’t be driven to eat food. And as a result, we might suffer from malnutrition.
Example 2: If we never feel the pain of a toothache, then we wouldn’t be alerted to visit the dentist. And as a result, our teeth will likely rot.

Although pain is an unpleasant sensation, at times, it can be life-or-death important to our well being, because it decreases the risk of harm or injury.


Pain prompts action, escape and recovery.

As much as we may hate pain, it is a useful tool that teaches us what to be cautious of when we are growing up, or when we are merely careless. Without it, we could not understand how to adhere to our own limitations.

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Example: The pain we feel when we stub our toe exists for an important reason. It gives us a sense of our own physical limitations, such as what we can and cannot touch.

Pain captures our attention and allows affective problem solving in response to the unpleasantness of pain.

Benefit #3: Pain Promotes Pro-Social Behavior.

Pain bonds us with others.

Research suggests that pain actually has positive social consequences; it acts as a sort of “social glue” and bonds us with others.

Example: In a study, students were either asked to do upright wall squats (which are typically painful), or balance on one leg. The participants then rated statements about how they felt about their group (listed below). The pain condition reported higher bonding than those who performed the painless tasks. (Bastian et al., 2014)

Bastian, Jetten, & Ferris (2014) Psychological Science

Bastian, Jetten, & Ferris (2014) Psychological Science

Pain promotes cooperation.

“What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger as a group”

Example 1: Let's compare two sacred rituals: Malaysia’s festival of Thaipusam involves communal prayer and song. But India’s Kavadi festival is a more painful sacred ritual where participants pierce their body with needles and skewers, and attach hooks to their backs, with which they drag a cart for hours.

Pain of the Kavadi made participants- and even observers- more generous towards donating to their temple: Kavadi participants donated an average of 134 rupees to the temple; those who had engaged in prayer and song only offered 81 rupees (Xygalatas et al. 2013).

 https://expatcassie.wordpress.com/tag/kavadi/

https://expatcassie.wordpress.com/tag/kavadi/

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/epiphenom/2013/06/extreme-rituals-promote-prosociality.html

Example 2: Rowing participants were divided into low or moderate intensity conditions. After rowing for 30 minutes, participants played a public goods game, where they were given $5.00, and could either keep it for themselves or give any amount of it to a group fund. If donated, contributions were doubled and redistributed equally among participants. 45% of the moderate intensity participants contributed the entire $5, whereas only 29% of participants in low intensity conditions donated $5 (Davis et al. 2015).

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http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0136705

Both examples demonstrate the fact that pain stimulates prosocial behavior. Simply sharing painful experiences with others promotes cooperation.

No Pain, No Gain

https://depositphotos.com/stock-photos/no-pain-no-gain.html

The thought of a pain-free life full of eternal pleasure may sound like heaven- but I hope it doesn’t at this point in my article. In reality, true happiness and wellbeing can’t be achieved without overcoming some sort of pain.

Example 1: Can you imagine if at the start of a semester, your professors tell you that you’ll get an A in every class? Would that “A” on your transcript still be meaningful? No. That “A” is only meaningful, because you worked hard and earned it.

Example 2: College graduation is only meaningful, because of the sense that student could’ve failed.

Pleasure, alone, can’t make us happy- true happiness only exists when we overcome the associated negative experience. If we avoid pain, then we are only denying ourselves of our true reality. 

... So, who wouldn't want to stub their toe?

Works Cited

Bastian, Brock, et al. “Pain as Social Glue.” Psychological Science, vol. 25, no. 11, 2014, pp. 2079–2085., doi:10.1177/0956797614545886. 

Bastian, Brock, et al. “Physical Pain and Guilty Pleasures.” Social Psychological and Personality Science, vol. 4, no. 2, 2012, pp. 215–219., doi:10.1177/1948550612451156. 

Bastian, Brock. “In Pursuit of Happiness: Why Some Pain Helps Us Feel Pleasure.” The Conversation, UNSW Australia, 19 Feb. 2015, theconversation.com/in-pursuit-of-happiness-why-some-pain-helps-us-feel-pleasure-37478.

Davis, Arran, et al. “Social Bonds and Exercise: Evidence for a Reciprocal Relationship.”               Plos One, vol. 10, no. 8, 2015, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0136705.

Research, Allied Market. “Analgesics Market Is Expected to Reach $26.4 Billion, Globally, by 2022.” PR Newswire: News Distribution, Targeting and Monitoring, PRNewswire, 9 Feb. 2018, www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/analgesics-market-is-expected-to-reach-264-billion-globally-by-2022-575688921.html.

Xygalatas, Dimitris, et al. “Extreme Rituals Promote Prosociality.” Psychological

Science, vol. 24, no. 8, 2013, pp. 1602–1605., doi:10.1177/0956797612472910.