Background: Expectations of painful sensations constitute a core feature of chronic pain. An important clinical question is whether such expectations are revised when disconfirming experiences are made (e.g., less pain than expected). The present study examined how people adjust their pain expectations when the experience of decreasing pain is expected vs. unexpected. Methods: In a novel experimental paradigm, people who frequently experience pain (N=73) were provided with painful thermal stimulations. Unbeknownst to participants, the temperature applied was decreased from trial to trial. Based on the experimental instructions provided, this experience of decreasing pain was expected in one condition (expectation-confirmation), whereas it was unexpected in another (expectation-disconfirmation). Results: Expectation violations were higher in the expectation-disconfirmation condition than in the expectation-confirmation condition, F(1, 69) = 6.339, p = .014, ηp² = .084. Participants from the expectation-confirmation condition showed a greater adjustment of their pain expectations than the expectation-disconfirmation condition, F(1.666, 114.929) = 7.486, p = .002, ηp² = .098. Across groups, expectation adjustment was related to increases in pain tolerance (r = .342, p = .004) and the ability to cope with pain (r = .234, p = .045) at a one-week follow-up. Conclusions: Participants were more likely to adjust their pain expectations when the experience of decreasing pain was expected. Though participants who experienced large discrepancies between expected and experienced pain were hesitant to adjust their pain expectations immediately, experiencing expectation violations increased their ability to cope with pain one week later, suggesting some beneficial longer-term effects of expectation violations.