Abstract
THE FINDING: Daily doses of acetaminophen alleviate hurt feelings and reduce neural activity related to the pain of social rejection. THE RESEARCH: The University of Kentucky's C. Nathan DeWall asked 62 undergraduates to take 1,ooo milligrams of acetaminophen or a placebo for three weeks. Each evening they recorded how much social pain they'd felt that day. The hurt feelings of those who took acetaminophen decreased significantly over time; people who took the placebo showed no change. In a related study, functional MRIs showed that people who had taken acetaminophen also had less activity in the brain regions that respond to emotional pain. THE CHALLENGE: Aren't mental and physical pain entirely different? Can over-the-counter analgesics improve your emotional state if, say, you get fired?
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 28-29 |
| Number of pages | 2 |
| Journal | Harvard Business Review |
| Volume | 89 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| State | Published - Apr 2011 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Business and International Management
- General Business, Management and Accounting
- Economics and Econometrics
- Strategy and Management
- Management of Technology and Innovation