TY - JOUR
T1 - Pain and satisfaction
T2 - healthcare providers’ facial appearance matters
AU - Mattarozzi, Katia
AU - Caponera, Elisa
AU - Russo, Paolo Maria
AU - Colonnello, Valentina
AU - Bassetti, Margherita
AU - Farolfi, Elena
AU - Todorov, Alexander
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - Trait inferences based solely on facial appearance affect many social decisions. Here we tested whether the effects of such inferences extend to the perception of physical sensations. In an actual clinical setting, we show that healthcare providers’ facial appearance is a strong predictor of pain experienced by patients during a medical procedure. The effect was specific to familiarity: facial features of healthcare providers that convey feelings of familiarity were associated with a decrease in patients’ perception of pain. In addition, caring appearance of the healthcare providers was significantly related to patients’ satisfaction with the care they received. Besides indicating that rapid, unreflective trait inferences from facial appearance may affect important healthcare outcomes, these findings contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms underlying social modulation of pain perception.
AB - Trait inferences based solely on facial appearance affect many social decisions. Here we tested whether the effects of such inferences extend to the perception of physical sensations. In an actual clinical setting, we show that healthcare providers’ facial appearance is a strong predictor of pain experienced by patients during a medical procedure. The effect was specific to familiarity: facial features of healthcare providers that convey feelings of familiarity were associated with a decrease in patients’ perception of pain. In addition, caring appearance of the healthcare providers was significantly related to patients’ satisfaction with the care they received. Besides indicating that rapid, unreflective trait inferences from facial appearance may affect important healthcare outcomes, these findings contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms underlying social modulation of pain perception.
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U2 - 10.1007/s00426-020-01330-3
DO - 10.1007/s00426-020-01330-3
M3 - Article
C2 - 32266544
AN - SCOPUS:85083358566
SN - 0340-0727
VL - 85
SP - 1706
EP - 1712
JO - Psychological Research
JF - Psychological Research
IS - 4
ER -