Another use for Tylenol? Seems there is. I can already picture the new television ads: a teenager comes home from school after suffering some sort of social rejection, Mom or Dad provides a hug, perhaps a glass of milk, and a couple of Tylenol…
According to two 2010 studies by University of Kentucky psychologist C. Nathan DeWall, painkillers can reduce the sting of social rejection just as they do physical pain. It appears that physical pain and social rejection share neural pathways in the brain. “Being ignored and left out activates the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, a region linked with the emotional aspects of physical agony, and the insula, an area instrumental in judging pain severity. Taking a painkiller (here it was acetaminophen) squelches both neural responses to ostracism”* (being ignored and excluded – social rejection).
Individual differences in how tough or sensitive we are have little influence on the initial intensity of the pain from ostracism, though it can be a factor in how we cope with the pain and in how quickly we bounce back from it.
“No matter how people are left out, their response is swift and powerful, inducing a social agony that the brain registers as physical pain. Even brief episodes involving strangers or people we dislike activate pain centers, incite sadness and anger, increase stress, lower self-esteem and rob us of a sense of control.”**
*Scientific American Mind (January/February 2011), “The Pain of Exclusion”, Kipling D. Williams, p. 35.
**Scientific American Mind (January/February 2011), “The Pain of Exclusion”, Kipling D. Williams, p. 32.
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