Social Influence on Nonsuicidal Self-injury (2011)

Undergraduates: Ann Mills Lassiter, Stephanie Lane, Paul Shorkey, Collyn Murray, Kent Lee, Grace Chung, Megan Puzia, Victorial Spring Joe Franklin none

Faculty Advisor: Mitch Prinstein
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is the intentional and socially unacceptable destruction of one’s own body tissue in the absence of suicidal intent. Studies have examined the automatic functions of NSSI using self-report and laboratory methods, yet no studies have examined the social functions of NSSI using laboratory methods. In this study we examined the effect of a social manipulation on how participants endured and experienced a NSSI-proxy. Participants were undergraduates (n = 85). At the beginning of the experiment, participants heard a scripted conversation among research assistants. One group heard a social positive reinforcement (SPR) script to prime them to believe that it was admirable to endure the NSSI-proxy for long time; the other group heard a social positive punishment (SPP) script to prime them to believe that enduring the NSSI-proxy was abnormal. During the NSSI-proxy, participants indicated their pain tolerance, threshold and intensity ratings. Acoustic startle response and prepulse inhibition were used to measure cognitive-affective regulation. The SPR group displayed significantly higher pain tolerance than the SPP group. There were no group differences in threshold, intensity ratings, or cognitive-affective regulation. These findings indicate that SPR works by increasing one’s willingness to tolerate pain, but does not alter the experience of pain itself. This suggests that people who engage in NSSI due to SPR do not derive automatic benefits from NSSI.