Abstract
Social and physical pain share common overlap at linguistic, behavioral, and neural levels. Prior research has shown that acetaminophen-an analgesic medication that acts indirectly through cannabinoid 1 receptors-reduces the social pain associated with exclusion. Yet, no work has examined if other drugs that act on similar receptors, such as marijuana, also reduce social pain. Across four methodologically diverse samples, marijuana use consistently buffered people from the negative consequences associated with loneliness and social exclusion. These effects were replicated using cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental designs. These findings offer novel evidence supporting common overlap between social and physical pain processes.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 131-139 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Social Psychological and Personality Science |
| Volume | 5 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2014 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA005312).
Keywords
- depression
- health
- loneliness
- longitudinal methodology
- neuroscience
- ostracism
- social exclusion
- well-being
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
