The role of observer’s fear of pain and health anxiety in empathy for pain: an experimental study

Abstract

Introduction:

Empathy for pain is influenced by several factors, including observer beliefs. This study aimed to test the associations between empathy for pain, fear of pain and health anxiety.

Methods:

A total of 182 participants rated their levels of empathy towards 16 images (8 female and 8 male) of individuals in pain and provided measures of fear of pain, health anxiety as well as age, sex and the presence of current pain.

Findings:

Both fear of pain and health anxiety were positively associated with empathy for pain, but in the regression model, only fear of pain was a significant positive predictor of overall empathy for pain and its three subscales: affective distress, vicarious pain and empathic concern. The presence of pain also predicted overall empathy for pain, affective distress and vicarious pain.

Observer’s sex and age were not significant. The pattern of results remained the same when we repeated the analysis separately for images with males and females.

Conclusion:

The results suggest that more fearful observers, and those in current pain themselves, have higher levels of empathy for pain. Future research should examine the mechanisms underlying this relationship and how fear of pain may influence empathic behaviours towards people in pain.

Keywords

Empathy for pain fear of pain health anxiety pain pain perception

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