Effects of Language Context and Cultural Identity on the Pain Experience of Spanish-English Bilinguals.

ABSTRACT: While language and culture influence cognition, their role in shaping pain remains understudied. We tested whether language and cultural identification influence pain report among Spanish-English bilinguals. Eighty bilingual Hispanics/Latinos (40 female) experienced painful thermal stimulations, providing pain intensity and unpleasantness ratings, on separate English and Spanish testing days. Participants' skin conductance responses (SCRs) during stimulations served as measures of physiological arousal. Bilingual participants showed larger SCRs and higher pain intensity when speaking the language congruent with their dominant cultural identification. That is, those endorsing more Hispanic cultural identification showed higher pain in Spanish, while US-American-dominant participants demonst

SUBMITTER: Gianola M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8317868 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature