Money As A Pain Buffer:Psychological Effects Of Money Play A Role In Pain Perception And Pain Related Dysfunction

Pain-buffering theory of money proposed that money has instrumental value and is used to exchange goods and services to cope with pain,thereby providing a sense of physical and psychological security and functioning like social support as another protective device against pain.Apart from how money works as a pain buffer in laboratory,this research is also interested how it functions in the actual life.Some people continue to work and keep a normal life despite pain,while others are unable to carry on their previous work or life for suffering from it,which may involve the role of financial stress.Study1 examined whether monetary gain and loss influenced pain perception(i.e.pain tolerance and intensity)in cold pressor test(CPT).All of the participants were in healthy condition(N = 140).A 3(group: gain versus loss versus control)× 2(CPT times: baseline versus post-manipulation)mixed design was adopted.During the interval of two CPT,participants received monetary manipulations.For gain group,each participant was told that the pay increased to 20 yuan because of budget surplus.For loss group,they were told that the pay decreased to 10 yuan because of insufficient budget.The 15-yuan-group was the control group.Monetary gain group significantly improved pain tolerance after manipulation,while the peers in control and loss group did not see a change in pain tolerance.But gain group did not show higher tolerance than cohorts in the other two groups.Besides,pain intensity was not affected by monetary gain or loss.Thus,study1 substantiated pain-buffering effect of money by showing that monetary gain leads to higher pain tolerance among healthy people.Study2 was conducted to rule out the possibility that the loss magnitude in study1 was not big enough to influence pain tolerance and also to see if larger gain can replicate the finding of study1.It was examined whether extreme monetary gain and loss influenced pain perception in CPT.All of the participants were in healthy condition(N = 149).Design and procedure of study2 were the same as study1 except that the magnitude of monetary gain/loss was increased to 10 yuan in order to create an extreme monetary gain/loss.Extreme monetary gain and control group significantly improved pain tolerance after manipulation,while the peers in extreme loss group did not see a change.But extreme gain group did not show higher pain tolerance than cohorts in the other two groups.Less expectedly,extreme gain group reported more pain in the posttest while counterparts in the other two groups did see a change.So,study2 substantiated pain-buffering effect of money by showing that extreme monetary gain leads to higher pain tolerance and it also enables people to take more challenging and painful tasks.Study3 investigated the association between financial stress and pain related dysfunction in people with chronic musculoskeletal pain(N = 594).Financial stress and four facets of pain related dysfunction(i.e.pain intensity,pain disability,pain-related affective distress and depression)were measured.Measure of financial stress respectively predicted significant additional variance in pain disability,pain related affective distress and depression,whilst controlling for the overall impact of socioeconomic status and pain characteristics.But financial stress was not associated with pain intensity.Thus,study3 confirmed that financial stress is a predictor of pain disability,pain related affective distress and depression among people in chronic musculoskeletal pain condition.Overall,this series of studies support pain buffer effect of money and extend the knowledge of psychological effects of money as a pain buffer in both healthy and clinical sample(i.e.people with chronic musculoskeletal pain).