Likewise, if injury is seen as a positive occurrence, then the pain will be less severe. Boston surgeon H. Beecher studied this phenomenon during World War II. Soldiers, who were injured in battle with injuries similar to their civilian counterparts, required less pain medication. To the soldiers, a wound meant a ticket home, so the pain they were feelings was positive.

In other examples of how cultural norms affect intensity of pain, if a boy has been taught by society that crying is bad and that “boys don’t cry and only sissies get hurt,” he is apt to “tough it out” and say that nothing is wrong, even if he has a serious injury. With this attitude, he may end up doing further damage to the injured body part, just like the boy in the example at the beginning of this article.

In addition to these external factors, the intensity of our pain is also based on internal factors. Kuttner writes, “When the body experiences an injury, nerve impulses at the site of the injury send a message to the brain. The nerve impulses alone are not the pain; only when they reach the brain are they defined, felt and experienced as ‘pain’.”

Your child, based on a past negative experience with a needle, may interpret the shot about to be administered not only as a physical discomfort but also as a huge threat. Because of these feelings, she may feel more pain from that needle pierce than her friends would.

Recently, researchers in England suggested that newborns may have more of the chemicals in their spinal cords that cause the experience of pain than adults do. But, infants have no way to articulate what they are feeling (other than by crying) and do not know mechanisms—internally and externally—to shut down the pain as older children and adults do. So it is important for us, as parents, to watch our children closely to pick up the nonverbal clues on how they feel. Classifications of Pain