Does Pain Command Our Collective Attention and Affiliate Us Online?

Abstract

Pain manifested in the digital age interrupts, distracts, and demands the collective attention of sometimes millions of online users. This thesis represents a novel, preliminary investigation into the effects of collectively attending to others’ pain on interpersonal relations among those with whom it is attended online and the mechanisms that mediate these effects. In detail, Chapter 1 introduces this thesis with an overview of literature linking shared experiences of pain to interpersonal affiliation. The chapter includes the proposition that within online contexts, the experience of collectively attending to others’ physical and social pain promotes affiliative attitudes and behaviours among individuals with whom it is attended. The chapter also explores cognitive and affective processes that likely account for these effects. Chapter 2 then contains Study 1, which was used to create a stimulus set of written- and videovignettes depicting physically painful, socially painful, and non-painful experiences. Given the popularisation of online video sharing platforms, video-vignettes from Study 1 were used in subsequent experimental studies. Next, Chapter 3 explores the phenomenon of pain collectively attended to online. The chapter includes Study 2A, which examined usual engagement with online video. Over 70% of participants reported having engaged with online videos depicting pain, confirming the potential for collectively attended pain in contemporary culture. The chapter also includes Study 2B, which examined the collective nature of attending to others’ pain online. Attending to others’ pain elicited significantly stronger collective attention ratings than attending non-painful content online, corroborating the idea that pain amplifies shared experiences. Chapter 4 then explores processes associated with collectively attending to others’ pain in in-person contexts, knowledge of which was used to inform subsequent online studies. The chapter includes Study 3A, which was used to develop a shared identity prime sufficient to evoke a minimal relational connection among co-attendees in Study 3B. Study 3B, also included in the chapter, was dedicated to identifying processes associated with collectively attending to others’ pain in person. Cognitive resource allocation, perceived emotional synchrony, and moral salience were identified as potential mediators of affiliation among those who collectively attend to others’ pain. Chapter 5 contains a final experimental study (manuscript Study 2), which subsequently sought to quantify the extent to which collectively attending to others’ pain promotes affiliation among co-attendees in online contexts and identify relevant mediating mechanisms. As proposed, collectively attending to others’ physical and social pain indirectly promoted cohesion, interpersonal closeness, and desire to affiliate among coattendees through perceived emotional synchrony. Yet, contrary to propositions made, collectively attending to others’ physical and social pain also indirectly lessened generosity among co-attendees through moral licensing. Chapter 6 concludes this thesis with a general discussion of these seemingly contradictory findings in the context of existing literature, including reference to implications, limitations, and future directions. Given that interpersonal attachment is a fundamental human motivation, understanding how seemingly dysphoric collective experiences can be utilised to promote affiliative attitudes and behaviours has wide-ranging practical implications.