Pain Goes Away With Mere Thought of Loved One

Absence is said to make the heart grow fonder. According to a study reported by LiveScience recently conducted at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), it may perhaps make the hurt go yonder as well.

The study, undertaken by members of the psychology department, finds that thinking of someone you love leads to diminished symptoms and sensations of physical pain. It's a nifty reciprocal of the old maxim that you always hurt the one you love: the one you love, and thinking of him or her, takes hurt away.

Two different stages were employed in the study in which a small test population of 25 women participated. For the first, the subjects were asked to squeeze a ball, hold the hand of a male stranger, and hold their boyfriends' hands during the application of pain through high temperature. Subjects reported feeling less pain when holding the hand of their boyfriend. In the similar second test stage, the pain was applied and the subjects were shown a series of pictures: a stranger, a chair and their boyfriend. Again, pain sensations were reportedly less when viewing the boyfriend's photo.

Psychology professor and study co-author Naomi Eisenberger reflects on the findings uncovered in the recent work, as quoted by LiveScience:

"This changes our notion of how social support influences people. Typically, we think that in order for social support to make us feel good, it has to be the kind of support that is very responsive to our emotional needs. Here, however, we are seeing that just a photo of one's significant other can have the same effect."

The authors say that for periods of emotionally difficulty or physical pain, it may be a good tactic to keep handy a photograph of the object of one's affection to help achieve the result.

However, for third degree burns or feet caught in wood chippers or the like, Tonic recommends a phone call to your sweetie after calling 911 — letting him or her know that the two of you have a date at the emergency room.

Photo courtesy of Hans Andersen, via Wikimedia Commons