Socially-Induced Placebo Analgesia Helps Explain the Social Contagion of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury (2010)

Undergraduates: Rachel Aaron, Michael Arthur, Stephanie Lane, Collyn Murray, Megan Puzia, Paul Shorkey Joe Franklin, Mitch Prinstein

Faculty Advisor: Mitch Prinstein
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a prevalent and growing problem, and although research has highlighted its vulnerability to social contagion, there is no explanation for how this process occurs, given the aversive nature of NSSI. The current study investigates the possibility that socially transmitted information that NSSI is painless and regulating could lead to socially-induced placebo analgesia (SIPA), which might result in improved cognitive-affective regulation in response to NSSI in individuals who engage in the behavior for the first time. Participants were undergraduates with no history of NSSI (n=54). The current study employed acoustic startle modulation and prepulse inhibition to measure the cognitive and affective regulation of participants to an NSSI-proxy. Participants were primed to expect the proxy to be regulating and minimally painful, and indeed, demonstrated and increase in cognitive-affective regulation following the pain task. These results support SIPA and demonstrate the influence of expectations of pain on the effects of pain. These findings help explain the social contagion of NSSI, and provide one possible avenue for the acquisition of the behavior. The results have implications for the treatment and prevention of NSSI.