The demographics of pain: How age, race, and gender affect pain assessments

Prior studies indicate that sex, race, and age biases in assumed pain sensitivity produce treatment disparities: Women are seen as more sensitive than men; white people as more sensitive than Black people; and both seniors and infants are deprioritized. We recruited online participants (N=69) to assess fictional characters’ pain in 8 scenarios. Characters varied in sex (male/female), race (Black/white), age (adult/child), and injury (e.g., bruised leg, splinter). Using a mixed effects regression, we found an effect of character age (p<0.01) and a marginal effect of character sex (p=0.08). These results suggest that adults assume children feel more pain than adults. Additionally, we found that male participants rated female characters’ pain as higher than male characters’ pain (p<0.01), whereas female participants rated male and female pain equally. Also, white participants gave lower pain ratings overall than nonwhite participants (p<0.01). In sum, character and participant demographics both affected pain assessment outcomes