Is there an easy way to increase your pain tolerance?

Highlights

⺠We find that adopting physical postures associated with power, or simply interacting with others who adopt such postures, can influence individualsâ sensitivity to pain. Participants who adopted dominant postures (in the form of expansive yoga poses) displayed higher pain thresholds than those who adopted submissive or neutral poses (more constrictive yoga poses). Further, participants who interacted with a confederate who behaved dominantly (e.g., leaning back in a chair expansively) as opposed to submissively (e.g., slouching down in a chair) also experienced differential changes in pain thresholdâin this case, the changes were complementary to the postures of the confederate: interacting with a dominant confederate decreased pain thresholds, while interacting with a submissive confederate increased pain thresholds. This work provides evidence for the subtle ways in which interacting with others (e.g., caregivers or doctors) can influence an individual’s pain tolerance.

Source: “It hurts when i do this (or you do that): Posture and pain tolerance” from Journal of Experimental Social Psychology