Imagined future social pain hurts more now than imagined future physical pain

Social pain has been shown to be more easily re‐lived than physical pain. This study further examined whether social pain could be more easily pre‐lived or pre‐experienced than physical pain. Participants were instructed to pre‐live a socially or physically painful event and report their feelings of pain. Consistent with our hypotheses, social pain is easily pre‐lived, but physical pain is not. In addition, individuals with more vivid mental imageries reported higher levels of pain after pre‐living a socially painful event than those with less vivid mental imagery; such a difference was not observed after pre‐living a physically painful event. The discussion was centered on the theoretical and metrological implications of these findings.