Introduction

1. Does the emotion evoked by swearing increase tolerance to pain? Maritza Bojorquez, Melissa Calderon, Maria Aurora Cueto, Ann M. Englert, Abdiel J. Flores, Irene G. Insunza, Yoko Ishiguro, Joshua D. Marquez, Taylor Massey, & Nancy Alvarado California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Method Conclusion Introduction To test this hypothesis, we reanalyzed data collected in a pain study measuring tolerance to pain in a cold pressor task. Participants were 183 undergraduate students who submerged their hands in a circulating water bath kept at 3 degrees Celcius. Video of the cold pressor task permitted us to observe and classify subjects based on whether they: (1) swore during the task, (2) spoke aloud at all during the task, or (3) were entirely silent during the task. This allowed us to see whether the spontaneous behavior of subjects, as a coping response, influenced their ability to tolerate cold. A variety of additional measures were used in that previous study, permitting several new hypotheses to be tested, including whether those with higher autonomic arousal (blood pressure, heart rate, electrodermal activity) showed greater pain tolerance (due to activation of the sympathetic ANS), whether those with higher negative affect ratings (for fear, anger, and embarrassment) showed greater pain tolerance, and whether those with more negative attitudes toward pain assessed on a Pain Attitudes Questionnaire showed greater pain tolerance. Stephens, Atkins and Kingston (2009) found that swearing increases pain tolerance, perhaps because it is accompanied by emotion which activates sympathetic autonomic response. In addition, they found that males who catastrophise experience stronger affect but, unlike other males, show a reduced analgesic effect when swearing as a response to cold-pressor pain. Our goal was to observe whether emotion does moderate pain tolerance. Hypothesis: If emotion does moderate this effect then we should be able to see a heightened tolerance to pain among subjects who feel increased emotion during a cold pressor task, with or without swearing. . This study analyzed the impact of talking and swearing as a coping response during a cold pressor task, but subjects were not invited or asked to talk or swear. Thus, it was not a manipulation of behavior but rather an observational study of the incidence of spontaneous talking and swearing when experiencing pain, and the impact of that behavior on pain tolerance. Our findings suggest that talking does not seem to enhance coping, nor does swearing occur spontaneously as a response to pain experience, at least in our task. If talking behavior is being evoked by our task, it seems to occur among those less able to tolerate pain. It does not seem to be resulting from emotionality or evoking emotionality, as evidenced by the low correlations between self-reported affect, and as evidenced by the physiological measures (e.g., electrodermal activity, heart rate). Results There was a significant correlation between time in water (pain tolerance) and talking behavior, but it was negative, r=-.185, p=.013. That means that those who talked tended to have shorter times in the water. In contrast with Stephens et al. (2009), there were significant correlations between emotion ratings and time in water, but positive not negative affect increased pain tolerance. Specifically, pain was negatively correlated with time in water, r=-.371, p=.000. Happiness was positively correlated with time in water, r=.334, p = .000. Fear (r=-.197, p=.008) and Anxiety (r=-.255, p=.001) were negatively correlated. Calmness was positively correlated, r=.378, p=.000. Surprise was negatively correlated with time in water, r=-.218, p=.003. Surprise was positively correlated with talking behavior (talking increased with surprise ratings), r=.185, p=.015. Talking was also correlated with Frustration, r=.187, p=.012. If swearing increases cold tolerance via emotional activation, these correlations suggest that evoking positive affect would be a better way of increasing pain tolerance than evoking negative affect. The question is whether swearing or talking evokes negative or positive affect. Our data suggest that talking seems to be largely unrelated to affect but most likely to occur when subjects are frustrated or surprised. Talking behavior did vary with time in water but not as predicted by Stephens et al. (2009). Those who talked showed significantly shorter times in water, than those who did not talk, F(2,177)=3.378, p=.036. Talking Was Associated With Less Pain Tolerance Acknowledgments A special thanks to: Ralph B. Jester, Christine R. Harris, Julia F. Whitaker, Ruben Hoyos, and previous members of the lab who collected the cold pressor data.