EAPSI: Attenuating Pain with the Past: The Relationship between Nostalgia and Pain Sensitivity among American and Japanese Individuals

Kersten Mike, Fort Worth TX

Investigators

Abstract

The experience of chronic pain is associated with lower quality of life and impacts an estimated 20% of adults worldwide. With reports of pain being more prevalent and widespread in Japanese individuals than both non-Hispanic whites and other ethnic minority groups, it is important to identify protective factors that can lower the experience of pain cross-culturally given its precipitating effects on psychological, social, and physical well-being. The proposed study will test whether nostalgia, a sentimental longing for the past, reduces perceptions of physical pain in both American and Japanese samples. Data in support of these hypotheses will provide evidence that nostalgia can also serve as a potential pain intervention among Asian cultures that have a higher prevalence of pain-related disabilities and are more resistant to using medication to remedy their pain. This research project will be carried out in collaboration with Dr. Takashi Kusumi, an expert in nostalgia and cross-cultural research at Kyoto University in Japan. Although the experience of pain is universal, cultural differences in pain tolerance is a topic of concern for many researchers and physicians. Despite evidence demonstrating that individuals from Asian countries have higher pain sensitivity than those from European countries and the United States, research has yet to examine how psychological resources can be utilized to decrease perceptions of physical pain cross-culturally. Several studies have shown that the pancultural emotion of nostalgia, a sentimental longing for the past, offers many psychological benefits (e.g., optimism, positive affect, social connectedness), with other research linking these same outcomes with greater pain resilience. Building on this work, this fellowship will allow the proposed research to (a) examine whether nostalgic thinking can lead individuals to be less sensitive to experimentally-induced pain, (b) identify potential mediating variables that may explain the relationship between nostalgia and higher pain thresholds, and (c) examine whether there are cultural differences between American and Japanese participants on the experience of pain following a nostalgia manipulation. This award under the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes program supports summer research by a U.S. graduate student and is jointly funded by NSF and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.