The Influence Of Romantic Partners’ Accurate Empathy On Pain Ratings And Pain Recovery

The intimate relationship of the romantic partner can bring a sense of belonging and love to both partners.In the romantic relationship,both partners can experience being understood,accepted and cared.When an individual experiences pain,the empathy of the romantic partner is particularly important.So what is the impact of perceived empathy on pain? The present research used the cold pressor task to explore how perceived empathy in two types of dyadic relationship(romantic attachments vs friends)interacts with pain reporting in the subjective perception of the task,and recovery times in the recovery stage of cold pressor stimulation.This research used the laboratory situational manipulation method,which included three experiments.Study 1 explored whether perceived empathy influence the couples’ pain reporting.Study 2 explored the significance of perceived accurate empathy,that is,whether perceived accurate empathy promote the couples’ pain recovery.Study 3 explored whether the results under social pain conditions are consistent with those under physiological pain conditions.In study 1,we used the cold pressor test to investigate how perceived empathy influence couples’ subjective perception of pain.Ninety-two participants were recruited,including 46 romantic partner dyads.The experiment was designed by single factor between-subject.Perceived empathy was manipulated by adopting three levels as the experimental conditions: high evaluation,accurate evaluation,and low evaluation,using the difference of the pain reporting before and after perceived empathy manipulation as an index.The results showed that romantic partners circled higher pain ratings in the accurate evaluation condition(M = 8.13,SD = 1.57)than in the high evaluation(M = 6.65,SD = 1.33)and low evaluation conditions(M = 5.35,SD = 1.96).In study 2,we used the same experimental paradigm as study 1 and investigated how perceived empathy and relationship type interact with the subjective perception of pain and objective measures of recovery time,using heart rate as an index.One hundred and ninety participants were recruited,including 49 friend dyads and 46 romantic partner dyads.The difference of the pain reporting before and after perceived empathy manipulation and the recovery time were measured.We found a main effect of perceived empathy and a significant interaction between perceived empathy and relationship type.Romantic partners circled higher pain ratings in the accurate evaluation condition(M = 8.10,SD = 1.55)than friends(M = 5.14,SD = 2.07)and romantic partners needed less recovery time(M = 8.82,SD = 0.92)than friends in the accurate evaluation condition(M = 12.49,SD = 1.53).In study 3,we used the cyberball paradigm to examine the influence of relationship type on social pain reporting and recovery time.One hundred and Ninety-four participants were recruited,including 48 friend dyads and 49 romantic partner dyads.The difference of the pain reporting before and after perceived empathy manipulation and the recovery time were measured.The results showed that romantic partners(M = 4.51,SD = 1.88)reported less pain than friends(M = 6.35,SD = 1.91)only in the accurate empathy condition and romantic partners(M = 9.37,SD = 1.62)recovered more quickly in the accurate empathy condition than friends(M = 12.60,SD = 1.93).In our study,we draw these following conclusions through three sub-studies.1)Perceived accurate empathy plays a crucial role in the influence of romantic intimacy on an individual’s subjective perception of pain.2)Both the type of relationship and perceived empathy affect the individual’s pain and recovery.Compared with friends,perceived romantic partners’ accurate empathy increases the pain reporting and reduces the recovery time.3)Compared with friends,perceived accurate empathy from romantic partners relieves pain and reduces recovery time when dealing with social pain.Previous studies had shown that perceived high empathy will increase the pain report of couples.This study further points out that it is perceived accurate empathy is to increase the pain report of couples,and that couples’ perception of accurate empathy is of great significance for pain recovery.This study reveals how social support regulates physical and social pain.It helps to understand social interpersonal relationships better and builds a harmonious and friendly social environment.