Physical pain: A key component of Subjective Well-Being

Physical pain has been traditionally regarded as a body sensation. Most recently, physical pain has been considered an important human feeling. Subjective Well-Being (SWB) is a self-reported metric of well-being and involves different components including life satisfaction, positive and negative affect, and sense of fulfilment in life. This piece argues that physical pain should be considered a component of Subjective Well-Being. Physical pain and the current indicators of SWB have critical features in common that support the inclusion of physical pain in the conceptualization of SWB. Despite the similarities, none of the present measures of SWB are perfect proxies for pain. This underscores the potential of physical pain to capture aspects overlooked by the existing components of SWB. Considering physical pain a component of SWB can help researchers and policymakers to better understand individuals’ well-being and to advance the field in the coming decades.