Social modeling influences on psychophysical judgments of electrical stimulation.

Examined the psychophysical power functions describing the relation between subjective judgments and electric shock intensity in 30 college women exposed to social modeling influence procedures. Models simulated different levels of discomfort and pain susceptibility, ostensibly in response to the same shocks Ss were receiving. Ss observing a tolerant model accepted substantially greater shocks and on several measures reported no greater discomfort than those exposed to an intolerant model. A control group paired with an inactive observer was intermediate to these groups. The scale unit of power functions derived from regressions on logs and the mean range-estimated power function exponent were significantly smaller for the tolerant model group than for the other 2 groups. Changes in psychophysical parameters as a result of social modeling influence are interpreted as providing quantitative information on the contributions of central processing systems to the experience of pain. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)