European journal of pain : EJP
-
Estimating others' pain is a challenging inferential process, associated with a high degree of uncertainty. While much is known about uncertainty's effect on self-regarding actions, its impact on other-regarding decisions for pain have yet to be characterized. ⋯ Uncertainty biases decision-making but it is unclear if it affects choice behavior on pain for others. In examining this question, we found individuals were generally risk-seeking when faced with looming pain, but more so for self; and assigned higher monetary values and subjective ratings on another's pain. However, uncertainty dampened agents' assessment of a stranger's pain, suggesting latent variables may contradict overt altruism. This bias may underlie pain underestimation in clinical settings.