Person by Situation Interaction: Matching Suggestions to Participants' Motivational Styles
Trustees of Dartmouth College
Summary
This study examines the effects of placebo suggestions tailored to match or mismatch individual participants' motivational styles-an issue of person-situation 'fit' with important effects in public health settings, but which has been ignored in past research.
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18–55 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria: * Healthy participants * Dominant promotion focus or dominant prevention focus (based on our screening) Exclusion Criteria: * Currently or recently suffered from chronic pain (based on screening) * Cannot tolerate heat pain applied to the forearm, based on a calibration task at the beginning of the experiment
Interventions
- BehavioralPlacebo cream- "promotion" suggestion
Over-the-counter hand cream will be applied to participants' skin, but they will be told that they are given a highly efficient topical analgesic cream. The suggestion will be based on a "promotion" approach (promoting good feelings).
- BehavioralPlacebo cream- "prevention" suggestion
Over-the-counter hand cream will be applied to participants' skin, but they will be told that they are given a highly efficient topical analgesic cream. The suggestion will be based on a "prevention" approach (preventing pain).
- BehavioralControl cream
In a control condition, with the same cream as in the placebo interventions, participants will be instructed that the cream is a control cream with no effects.
Location
- Dartmouth CollegeHanover, New Hampshire