Physical Pain and Guilty Pleasures

Abstract

Across two studies, the authors show that simply experiencing physical pain facilitates indulgence in guilty pleasures. This is because people feel justified in rewarding themselves when they are the victims of unfair treatment and concepts of punishment are embodied within the experience of physical pain. Study 1 demonstrates that pain leads to self-reward but only in contexts that frame the experience of pain as “unjust.” Study 2 shows that after pain people are more likely to self-reward with guilty pleasures (chocolate) in preference to other kinds of rewards (a pen). The authors find that this effect is only evident for people who are especially sensitivity to personal injustice. The findings provide support for the notion that painful experiences may increase entitlement to rewards through implicit activation of justice-related concepts, allowing people to take liberty with pleasures that might otherwise arouse feelings of guilt.