David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
Sticks and stones: Words can hurt ever after
By Anxiety Insights
August 29, 2008
We all know the saying: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me," but is this proverb actually true?
According to some researchers, words may pack a harder punch that we realize. Psychologists Zhansheng Chen and Kipling D. Williams of Purdue University, Julie Fitness of Macquarie University, and Nicola C. Newton of the University of New South Wales found that the pain of physical events may fade with time, while the pain of social occurrences can be reinstantiated through memory retrievals.
The researchers set up four experiments to demonstrate this finding. In the first two experiments, participants reported the amount of pain they felt while trying to relive a physically or a socially painful experience. After writing detailed accounts of each experience, the participants reported how they felt.
The last two experiments were similar to the first two, except participants were asked to work on some cognitive tasks with different levels of difficulty after reliving a socially or physically painful event.
The results, published in the August issue of Psychological Science are clear. Participants who had to recall a socially painful experience reported stronger feelings of pain and relived the experience more intensely than those who had to recall a physically painful event. Furthermore, participants who only had to recall a physically painful event performed better on the difficult mental tasks in comparison to those who had to relive a socially painful event.
A possible explanation for these results could be the evolution of the human brain, specifically in the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for complex thinking, perception and language processing.
"The evolution of the cerebral cortex certainly improved the ability of human beings to create and adapt; to function in and with groups, communities, and culture; and to respond to pain associated with social interactions," the authors wrote. "However, the cerebral cortex may also have had an unintended effect of allowing humans to relive, re-experience, and suffer from social pain."
Source: Chen Z, Williams KD, Fitness J, Newton NC. When Hurt Will Not Heal: Exploring the Capacity to Relive Social and Physical Pain. Psychol. Sci 2008 Aug;19(5):789-795. [Abstract]
By Anxiety Insights
August 29, 2008
We all know the saying: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me," but is this proverb actually true?
According to some researchers, words may pack a harder punch that we realize. Psychologists Zhansheng Chen and Kipling D. Williams of Purdue University, Julie Fitness of Macquarie University, and Nicola C. Newton of the University of New South Wales found that the pain of physical events may fade with time, while the pain of social occurrences can be reinstantiated through memory retrievals.
The researchers set up four experiments to demonstrate this finding. In the first two experiments, participants reported the amount of pain they felt while trying to relive a physically or a socially painful experience. After writing detailed accounts of each experience, the participants reported how they felt.
The last two experiments were similar to the first two, except participants were asked to work on some cognitive tasks with different levels of difficulty after reliving a socially or physically painful event.
The results, published in the August issue of Psychological Science are clear. Participants who had to recall a socially painful experience reported stronger feelings of pain and relived the experience more intensely than those who had to recall a physically painful event. Furthermore, participants who only had to recall a physically painful event performed better on the difficult mental tasks in comparison to those who had to relive a socially painful event.
A possible explanation for these results could be the evolution of the human brain, specifically in the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for complex thinking, perception and language processing.
"The evolution of the cerebral cortex certainly improved the ability of human beings to create and adapt; to function in and with groups, communities, and culture; and to respond to pain associated with social interactions," the authors wrote. "However, the cerebral cortex may also have had an unintended effect of allowing humans to relive, re-experience, and suffer from social pain."
Source: Chen Z, Williams KD, Fitness J, Newton NC. When Hurt Will Not Heal: Exploring the Capacity to Relive Social and Physical Pain. Psychol. Sci 2008 Aug;19(5):789-795. [Abstract]
