Enduring pain for money: decisions based on the perception and memory of pain

We examine the relationship between memory for, and decisions about, pain. We test whether people's willingness to accept pain (WTAP) in exchange for money depends on whether they experienced a sample of a similar pain either moments earlier, or one week earlier. Inspired by Leventhal et al.'s two-factor theory of pain, we also manipulated whether subjects focused on, or were distracted from, their pain sensations. As predicted, although the distraction group displayed less WTAP than the sensation-focus group immediately after the initial experience, one week later they displayed greater WTAP. We also elicited WTAP and ratings of estimated pain intensity from a group of subjects who were given a description of the pain-induction procedure but did not actually experience it. These subjects exhibited greater WTAP, but similar ratings of pain intensity, compared with subjects who had experienced the pain either one week or moments earlier.