The present experiment investigated the effects of social modeling and monetary incentives on pain endurance as mediated by self-efficacy and pain perception. Using a 3 × 3 factorial design that crossed three levels of modeling (tolerant, no model, intolerant) with three rates of pay ($0, $1, and $2 per 20 s), 90 males performed an isometric exercise. Social modeling affected pain endurance, pain threshold, pain intensity, physiological strain, and self-efficacy; money had no effects. Exposure to intolerant models led participants to detect pain immediately and to rapidly perceive extreme pain producing low endurance. Those who saw tolerant models took longer to feel pain and experienced only a gradual increase in pain enabling them to endure longer. Self-efficacy did not mediate these effects. Structural equation analyses showed that the effects of social modeling on endurance work through perceptions of pain.
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