scholarly journals The autonomic pain relief response is dependent of self or social influence on pain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marthe Gründahl ◽  
Leonie Retzlaff ◽  
Martin J. Herrmann ◽  
Grit Hein ◽  
Marta Andreatta

Pain relief is defined as the ease of pain and is thus highly relevant for clinical applications and everyday life. Given that pain relief is based on the cessation of an aversive pain experience, it is reasonable to assume that pain relief learning would also be shaped by factors that alter subjective and physiological pain responses, such as social presence or a feeling of control. To date, it remains unclear whether and how factors that shape autonomic pain responses might affect pain relief learning. Here, we investigated how pain relief learning is shaped by two important factors known to modulate pain responses, i.e. social influence and controllability of pain. Skin conductance responses (SCRs) were recorded while participants learned to associate a formerly neutral stimulus with pain relief under three different pain conditions. In the social-influence condition (N = 34), the pain stimulation could be influenced by another person’s decisions. In the self-influence condition (N = 31), the participants themselves could influence the pain stimulation. Finally, in the no-influence condition (N = 32), pain stimulation was simply delivered without any influence. According to our results, the SCRs elicited by the stimulus that was associated with pain relief were significantly smaller compared to the SCRs elicited by a neutral control stimulus, indicating pain relief learning. However, there was no difference in the pain relief learning effect across the groups. These results suggest that physiological pain relief learning in humans is independent of social influence and pain controllability.

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (9/10) ◽  
pp. 1612-1630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Di Wang ◽  
Harmen Oppewal ◽  
Dominic Thomas

Purpose Several studies have shown that superstitious beliefs, such as beliefs in “lucky” product attributes, influence consumer purchase behaviour. Still, little is known about how social influence, in particular mere social presence, impacts consumer superstition-related purchase decisions. Drawing on impression management theory, this paper aims to investigate the effect of social presence on consumer purchase decisions of products featuring lucky charms including the role of anticipated embarrassment as a mediator of the social presence effect. Design/methodology/approach In three studies, participants select products that feature or do not feature a lucky charm. They make these selections under varying conditions of social presence, as induced by the shopping setting in the scenario or through the use of confederates or fellow participants observing them make a real product selection. Participants are students from Australia and China. Findings The studies show that social presence makes consumers less likely to select products that feature a lucky charm. This suppressing effect is mediated by the consumers’ anticipated embarrassment. Research limitations/implications The study investigates the effect of social presence but does not investigate different parameters of social presence such as the number of people present and their familiarity. The study investigates effects for purchase settings but does not include effects of usage and neither does it look into differences across product types or lucky charm types. Practical implications Marketers should be careful to not make lucky charms too publicly salient. Online settings are more suitable than mortar-and-brick settings for selling products featuring a lucky charm. Originality/value The present research is the first to investigate consumer purchase behaviour for a product featuring a lucky charm. It is also the first to investigate the impact of social influence on superstition-based decision-making.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 61-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandra Antonaci ◽  
Roland Klemke ◽  
Karel Kreijns ◽  
Marcus Specht

The social and individual aspects of MOOCs are two sides of the same coin. However, while the majority of MOOC designs do not valorise the potential that a massive audience could bring in, several studies highlight the solo-mission mode of MOOC users’ experience. Based on implementation intention, social presence, social influence and flow theory we conceptualise our gamification design of MOOCs that embraces their social and individual aspects. We present the gamification design process, our theoretical framework, the quantitative and qualitative results of our study to identify the most suitable game elements, their conceptual design, and our recommendations. Our findings enable designers of gamification and MOOCs as well, to see these two phenomena under a new light, by referring to new theories and new game elements that were not being considered before in the design of a gamified MOOC aiming at enhancing users’ goal achievement and engagement.


1989 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 450-451
Author(s):  
William P. Smith

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 7081 ◽  
Author(s):  
Athapol Ruangkanjanases ◽  
Shu-Ling Hsu ◽  
Yenchun Jim Wu ◽  
Shih-Chih Chen ◽  
Jo-Yu Chang

With the growth of social media communities, people now use this new media to engage in many interrelated activities. As a result, social media communities have grown into popular and interactive platforms among users, consumers and enterprises. In the social media era of high competition, increasing continuance intention towards a specific social media platform could transfer extra benefits to such virtual groups. Based on the expectation-confirmation model (ECM), this research proposed a conceptual framework incorporating social influence and social identity as key determinants of social media continuous usage intention. The research findings of this study highlight that: (1) the social influence view of the group norms and image significantly affects social identity; (2) social identity significantly affects perceived usefulness and confirmation; (3) confirmation has a significant impact on perceived usefulness and satisfaction; (4) perceived usefulness and satisfaction have positive effects on usage continuance intention. The results of this study can serve as a guide to better understand the reasons for and implications of social media usage and adoption.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Barchielli ◽  
Cristina Marullo ◽  
Manila Bonciani ◽  
Milena Vainieri

Abstract Background Several technological innovations have been introduced in healthcare over the years, and their implementation proved crucial in addressing challenges of modern health. Healthcare workers have frequently been called upon to become familiar with technological innovations that pervade every aspect of their profession, changing their working schedule, habits, and daily actions. Purpose An in-depth analysis of the paths towards the acceptance and use of technology may facilitate the crafting and adoption of specific personnel policies taking into consideration definite levers, which appear to be different in relation to the age of nurses. Approach The strength of this study is the application of UTAUT model to analyse the acceptance of innovations by nurses in technology-intensive healthcare contexts. Multidimensional Item Response Theory is applied to identify the main dimensions characterizing the UTAUT model. Paths are tested through two stage regression models and validated using a SEM covariance analysis. Results The age is a moderator for the social influence: social influence, or peer opinion, matters more for young nurse. Conclusion The use of MIRT to identify the most important items for each construct of UTAUT model and an in-depth path analysis helps to identify which factors should be considered a leverage to foster nurses’ acceptance and intention to use new technologies (o technology-intensive devices). Practical implications Young nurses may benefit from the structuring of shifts with the most passionate colleagues (thus exploiting the social influence), the participation in ad hoc training courses (thus exploiting the facilitating conditions), while other nurses could benefit from policies that rely on the stressing of the perception of their expectations or the downsizing of their expectancy of the effort in using new technologies.


Author(s):  
Paul Ranson ◽  
Daniel Guttentag

Purpose This study aimed to investigate whether increasing the social presence within an Airbnb lodging environment could nudge guests toward altruistic cleaning behaviors. Design/methodology/approach The study was based around a theoretical framework combining the social-market versus money-market relationship model, nudge theory and social presence theory. A series of three field experiments were conducted, in which social presence was manipulated to test its impact on guest cleaning behaviors prior to departure. Findings The experimental results confirmed the underlying hypothesis that an Airbnb listing’s enhanced social presence can subtly induce guests to help clean their rental units prior to departure. Originality/value This study is the first to examine behavioral nudging in an Airbnb context. It is also one of the first field experiments involving Airbnb. The study findings offer clear theoretical and practical implications.


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