Type of Document	Thesis
Author	DeWall, C Nathan John
URN	etd-04032006-132654
Title	Alone But Feeling No Pain: Effects Of Social Exclusion On Physical Pain Tolerance And Pain Threshold, Affective Forecasting, And Interpersonal Empathy
Degree	Master of Science
Department	Psychology, Department of
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title Roy F. Baumeister Committee Chair Jon K. Maner Committee Member Thomas Joiner Committee Member
Keywords	Physical Pain Rejection Social Exclusion Empathy Affective Forecasting Emotion
Date of Defense	2005-02-18
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract Prior findings of emotional numbness (rather than distress) among socially excluded persons led us to investigate whether exclusion causes a far-reaching insensitivity to both physical and emotional pain. Experiments 1-4 showed that receiving an ostensibly diagnostic forecast of a lonesome future life reduced sensitivity to physical pain, as indicated by both (higher) thresholds and tolerance. Exclusion also caused emotional insensitivity, as indicated by reductions in affective forecasting of joy or woe over a future football outcome (Experiment 3), as well as lesser empathizing with another person’s suffering from either romantic breakup (Experiment 4) or a broken leg (Experiment 5). Mediation analyses confirmed the link between insensitivities to physical and emotional pain.
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