The Effects of Academic Competition on Pain Perception

Competition in both an athletic environment and the laboratory have been shown to produce analgesic effects. Gender interactions are present in these manipulations,\ud particularly in the laboratory. The current study looks to further the understanding of\ud these effects by examining a task that should be equally engaging to both male and\ud female subjects, an academic aptitude competition, and also examining subject's pain\ud response in the middle of the manipulation, as opposed to before or after. Subjects competed for a monetary prize by completing a written test in a certain time limit.\ud Despite the aim of a gender neutral manipulation, gender effects were found for all three pain measures, heat withdrawal temperature, cold pressor intensity and cold pressor\ud unpleasantness. The results showed male subjects as being more sensitive to pain after\ud the competition as opposed to a baseline day, and female subjects as showing either no\ud effect or an analgesic reaction. The results are discussed in terms of gender differences in\ud response to competition