People Prefer More Pain When the End is Positive

Written on February 20, 2025

Abstract 

In this study, we investigated people’s perception of pain by asking them to rate their discomfort while submerging each hand into a bucket of water two separate times, once for 60 seconds at 14°C, and once for 60 seconds at 14°C plus 30 seconds at 15°C. We found that participants preferred the longer experience of discomfort because it had a less unpleasant end. 

Introduction 

To understand how people perceive pain, we carried out an experiment where we measured levels of discomfort in two situations. The first situation was uncomfortable. The second was uncomfortable but longer, ending with less discomfort. Participants of the experiment were then asked which situation they preferred. Our prediction was that people would prefer to minimize exposure to discomfort and therefore choose the shorter situation. 

Methods and Materials 

The setup consisted of a bucket of cold water coupled with a digital thermometer that was used to monitor the water’s temperature during the experiment and a scale device that allowed for real-time capture of digital discomfort measurements arranged on a table.  

[schematic diagram of setup]? 

The experiment was composed of two different trials. In the short trial, participants submerged one of their hands up to their wrist in a bucket of 14°C water for 60 seconds. The long trial began the same way, but required that participants leave their hand submerged for an additional 30 seconds during which the temperature was gradually increased by 1°C (to 15°C).  

Participants were told that the study’s purpose was to investigate differences in pain perception between dominant and non-dominant hands. They were not informed about the nature of the trials (i.e. the duration of each trial and the water’s temperature).  

Which hand a participant began with (their right or left hand) and whether they started with the short or long trial was randomized. Each participant began with their randomly assigned trial, after which they were asked to give an overall rating of their experience. Following a 15 break, they participated in the remaining trial with the other hand and were again questioned about their experience. In both trials, participants were asked to continuously indicate their discomfort while their hand was submerged using the scale device. After both trials, each participant was asked which trial they would prefer to repeat, and their answer was recorded. 

Results 

This study consisted of 12 participants. Discomfort was measured on a digital scale from 0 to 14, where 0 represented no discomfort and 14 represented extreme discomfort. The mean real-time discomfort levels for the short and long trials are shown in Fig. 1. 

Discomfort generally increased with duration for both trials. However, over the last 30 seconds of the long trial, while the temperature was being raised, discomfort consistently decreased. 

Approximately 58% (7/12) of the participants reported that they preferred the longer trial.  

Discussion 

There were two major differences between the long and short trial: duration and ending. Most participants favored the longer experience with a slightly less uncomfortable end. Why might this be the case? In the moment, the participants experienced increasing discomfort as each trial progressed. But when they looked back on the two experiences, they remembered the long trial more positively. Their experiencing and remembering selves perceived the situation in nontrivially different manners.  

The remembering self does not characterize experiences by their length, an effect termed duration neglect. Rather, memory of an experience is dominated by peak and end moments. Peak moments include those of highest emotional excitement, moments filled with intense joy, fear, anger, etc. End moments simply refer to the end of an experience. The feeling anchored to the ending of an experience plays a disproportionate role in how the entire experience is remembered, a phenomenon known as recency bias.  

The concept of experiencing versus remembering selves, duration neglect, peak moments, and recency bias provide an explanation for the findings of this study. The participants’ remembering selves characterized their experience of each trial by their peak and end moments, largely disregarding duration. Both experiences had the same peak levels of discomfort. Consequently, people preferred the longer experience of discomfort because it had a better ending than the shorter experience.  

Conclusion 

This study consisted of an experiment where participants were asked to rate their levels of discomfort in real time during two trials, one short, the other long, in which they were required to submerge their hand in 14°C water for 60 seconds with an additional 30 seconds at 15°C for the longer trial. The long trial induced less discomfort at the end of the experience by slightly increasing the temperature, leading 58% of participants to prefer it. It was found that people’s perception of discomfort is independent of experience duration and largely determined by peak and end moments.  

These findings imply that people can make better memories if they end experiences positively. They also have implications in the health and business sectors. Designing better ends to medical procedures and checkups can increase visits to the doctor’s office, ultimately improving long-term health outcomes. Selling cheap and delicious food after checkout stations at stores can cause customers to feel positive about their shopping experience and eager to come back again, a strategy exemplified by Costco and their famous ice cream. Adding a better end makes experiences positively remembered, a result that is powerful for both individuals and collectives. 

Bibliography 

Muller, Derek. “Why People Prefer More Pain.” YouTube, uploaded by Veritasium, 25 June 2024. https://youtu.be/v4r71kEdYME?si=H2sWpwC3hQD68XMb.