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Last updated: Wed, Jul 31, 2024
If different groups of people perceived pain differently, it might suggest that pain responses are learned rather than innate. If pain responses are learned, they can be retrained. This idea has been researched, and in fact different groups do report pain differently.
American anthropologist Mark Zborowski in the 1960s compared pain reactions among different ethnic groups, specifically Italians, Jews, and what he called “Old Americans,” that is, less-recent European immigrants. He found that Old Americans have an accepting, matter-of-fact attitude towards pain and pain expression. They tend to withdraw when the pain is intense, and cry out or moan only when they are alone. Jews and Italians, on the other hand, tend to be vociferous in their complaints and openly seek support and sympathy. The underlying attitudes of the two groups, however, appear to be different. Jews tend to be concerned about the meaning and implications of the pain, while Italians usually express a desire for immediate pain relief.
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(Newer interpretations have seen the differences in terms of which attitudes seem to more acceptable to hospital staff.)
Are these differences in pain perception or pain expression?
There are several thresholds of feeling. From the lowest to the highest, these are:
Current evidence is that the threshold of sensation is nearly constant among people and between cultural groups. The pain perception threshold and particularly the tolerance thresholds vary between cultural groups.
An extreme example has been documented by anthropologists who have recorded on film the use of unanesthetized trepanation, in which the scalp is folded back and the skull is bored through as a medical treatment. Westerners viewing the film commonly seem more bothered by the procedure than do the subjects.2