Many people assume that women have a higher tolerance for pain because...well they give
birth.
But, science actually tells us a different story.
[
Hi guys and gals, Lissette here for DNews....
Now I’m sorry but, it’s true.
Research shows that men have both a higher pain toleranceand higher threshold for pain.
In these studies, women typically report feeling pain much sooner than men - meaning a lower
threshold.
And women also tell the experimenters to stop the pain that’s being inflicted on them
much sooner than men do - meaning a lower tolerance.
And this all comes from data analyzed in multiple studies that span a period of more than a
decade, many of which have been published in the Journal of Pain.
Now, researchers study pain using all kinds of torturous methods - some of the more common
ways they inflict pain on participants include putting really cold things directly on the
skin, administering electric shocks, and putting a lot physical pressure on different parts
of the participant’s body.
In one study at the University of Lincoln in the UK, researchers subjected 24 men and
26 women to cold presses and measured their responses.
Consistent with other studies, they found that women had a lower tolerance and lower
threshold for pain compared to men.
But the scientists took the study even further.
When the researchers told the participants to focus on the physical components of the
pain, it helped decrease the pain felt for men but not for women.
And when they asked them to focus on the emotional aspects of the pain, it made the pain feel
worse for women, but not for men.
So for women, it’s like a double whammy - they seem to feel more pain more quickly
and have a harder time coping with it too.
But what’s important to keep in mind is that most of these studies rely on self-reports,
which means they are susceptible to biases.
Pain, is largely defined by science as subjective We rely on people to tell us how much pain
they feel and when they feel it as opposed to measuring it more objectively like we do
with height or weight.
Not surprisingly, studies have found that social factors influence these reports of
pain and the gender difference we see.
In one study on college students from both India and the US, researchers found that Americans
were more willingly to express that they’re in pain than their Indian counterparts.
And this was reflected in how much pain was reported - American students tolerated less
pain than Indian students.
Meaning that both sets of students could have been feeling the same pain, but for cultural
reasons one group expressed it quicker than the other.
On top of that, things like who’s conducting the experiment seem to matter too.
In another recent study published in the journal Pain, researchers had 80 male and 80 female
participants put their hands in icy cold water to measured their tolerance.
But, the researchers split the participants so half of them had the test conducted by
someone of the same sex and half had someone of the opposite sex..
The study found that how long they kept their hand under water significantly varied depending
on whether the experimenter was a man or a woman.
If tested by the opposite sex, they lasted much longer.
Clearly there are mediating social factors that influence pain.
But this doesn’t mean biology doesn’t play a role too.
Another study published in the journal Pain measured pain not by asking the participants
how much pain they felt, but by measuring how their pupils behaved with infrared technology.
Researchers hypothesized that the amount the pupil dilated directly correlated with how
much pain they were in.
In conditions of high pressure - or pain - women’s pupils’ dilated much more than men’s.
This is huge because it’s not like the participants could manipulate how much their pupils were
dilating.
This is a completely involuntary, biological reaction.
So it might just be that men and women feel pain differently.
But some men and some women don’t feel pain at all!
Find out why in this video
Do you find some things totally bearable that drive others nuts?
Like maybe screeching chalk on a chalkboard?
Let us know in the comments below.
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