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Science

Pain of Rejection Scientifically Proven 54

Posted by michael from the i-choo-choo-choose-you dept.
Earl the Girl writes "As Ian Sample of the guardian writes 'The pain of rejection is more than mere metaphor. A team of scientists have found that to the brain, a social snub is just like stubbing a toe.' Good to know the scientific tradition of reducing metaphors to mere similies is alive & well."
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Pain of Rejection Scientifically Proven More

Pain of Rejection Scientifically Proven

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  • "Sticks and stones can break my bones..."

    • "...but whips and chains excite me."

      What does this have to do with rejection again?
      • It was the concept that somebody telling you that "you suck, I don't wanna play with you" hurts in a way that is neurologically similar to the physical pain of them beating the crap out of you.

        • Sorry, my original post hasn't been modded (Score:5; Funny) yet so you missed the joke. Understandable. (Modders, please fix this.)

          The adage is supposed to be "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." But since the original poster didn't put the second part in, I thought I'd fill it in with a popular American perversion of the quote.

          This is supposed to be funny, because "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but whips and chains excite me" is unexpected (by most people who k

  • -1 Troll (Score:1, Troll)

    by pmz ( 462998 )

    (sob)

    • WTF??

      Obviously there are some moderators who just don't understand the subtlety of humour.

      Poor pmz, feeling all rejected and hurt, and now the moderators go and make him a troll, hurting him even more.

      It's okay pmz, people still love you,

      somewhere,

      maybe...


      • Obviously there are some moderators who just don't understand the subtlety of humour.

        I'm not so sure. I found it amuzing (well, painfully amuzing) that someone stuck it to me with a genuine "-1 Troll" moderation.

        So, how do we mod up a troll mod as funny? I think we need a moeration system for the moderations. It'll be great, I'm sure of it...well, until someone uses the second-level of moderation for humor...of course, we can just keep adding more levels of moderation!

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday October 10, 2003 @11:46AM (#7183469)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • A team of scientists have found that to the brain, a social snub is just like stubbing a toe.'

    And they're absolutely right. I should know.

    I've been feeling the pain of rejection a lot lately.

    I got laid off.

    Soon after I told my girlfriend about it, she dumped me.

    Then one of my closest friends moved out of the country.

    I'm camped out all alone in my cramped apartment, drinking cheap malt liquor and eating chips and salsa.

    My only social outlet these days is -- on Slashdot. I don't think I have to explai
  • Daaaaamn. I'm surprised I still have toes then.
  • The moral for /. mods is that you should remember this before you mod a comment down.

    You will cause pain to the poster, you insensitive clod!

  • So I guess that old expression, "I left with my ass in a sling" isn't so far from the truth afterall... :)
  • They didn't need a study. All they had to do was ask me.

    It's doubly worse, though, when you are amongst your fellow rejectees, on a place like Slashdot, and you are flamed and ostracized. When the rejectees reject you, you are left with nothing but redundant dejection.

  • Scientists have known for some time that when a person is physically hurt, a part of the brain called the anterior cingulate flickers into action.

    I wonder if that thingy does anything peculiar in people suffering from depression? Like maybe it 'flickers' constantly? Curious...
  • As someone who had a four year relationship end earlier this week, I can personally attest to the similarities to physical pain. A very timely peice for me... hrmph.
    • I'm sorry, dude. I know how you feel. But you knew it had to end. It was just a matter of time [slashdot.org] before it happened.

      Dreamcast users are a dying breed!
    • That's why you gotta be the one doing the dumping. Then it doesn't hurt!

      --jeff++
      • That depends, actually. Every once in a while the one doing the dumping has enough of a conscience to feel some pain as well.
        • Have you ever really experienced that??? Or did your ex's just pretend to feel pain?

          Did any of them say "I'm sorry but I can't see you anymore because I am infatuated with your best friend. But I feel terrible pain because I am dumping you." ????

          Both your roommate and your 'friend' have no respect for you and are only getting together because of their relationship WITH you. They are playing games. If you like to play games, go along with it. If you don't, leave now. Remember there is no use wrestling
          • Actually, I was on the giving end. I just no longer had feelings or interest for the woman and felt pain because of it--because I was at the point I was leading her on. I've been led on before, and I know it's not fun. It's not simple guilt. When I realize I've become a hypocrite it doesn't just spawn guilt, it spawns pain too because I automatically put myself in the other person's shoes. Call me crazy if you will, or even a liar, but it did happen.
            • This is called empathy. Some people are born without the empathy gene. After a while, you learn to ignore these people, becuase they will exploit any opportunity possible to cause you grief for their own enjoyment.
          • I'm glad to know I'm not the only guy that this happens to...and I'm also glad to know that others think it's ok for me to think both of them are out of line...
  • Every time I get modded down it hurts a little inside.

  • It's a good thing (Score:3, Funny)

    by Kethinov ( 636034 ) on Friday October 10, 2003 @01:07PM (#7184437) Homepage Journal
    that slashdot didn't reject this article! It might have been most painful to the submitter! ;)

  • So does that mean that 'conventional' pain killers should ease emotional pain as well?

    Although, a recent Wired article [wired.com] says that "Morphine kills the perception of pain by limiting sensory input to the brain", so perhaps the current conventional drugs stop the pain from the rest of the body reaching the brain, as opposed to pain already internal to the brain.

  • Anal Probes of Women (Score:3, Funny)

    by MonkeyBoyo ( 630427 ) on Friday October 10, 2003 @03:01PM (#7185130)
    The "hook" of this story (social loss = physical pain) depends on characterizing activity in the anterior cingulate region of the brain as perception of pain. But who knows what affects are localized there? The region may correlate with higher affects - maybe social anger, helplessness, etc. If a researcher has you inside a MRI and is sticking pins in your fingers to cause pain, I am sure you would be feeing many things toward that reasearcher other than just pure pain.

    For example, a crying child can activate a woman's anterior cingulate.

    For another example, forced rectal distension causes activity in the anterior cingulate for women but not for men [physiology.org].
    Twenty-eight healthy, young (20-44 yr) volunteer subjects (13 male, 15 female) were studied with a paradigm-driven functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique during barostat-controlled rectal distension at perception threshold and 10 mmHg below and above perception threshold. Male subjects showed localized clusters of fMRI activity primarily in the sensory and parietooccipital regions, whereas female subjects also showed activity in the anterior cingulate and insular regions.
    ("barostat-controlled rectal distension" basically means Inflating [barostat.com] a balloon [gatehouse-medical.com] in your ass.)

    Is there a direct line from women's rectums to the anterior cingulate or does the activity represent some higher affect? And why women and not men? Then again, the story wouldn't be too compelling if its title was:
    Heartbreak is like a Woman with an anal probe
  • How long before there's a "Pain and Suffering" lawsuit filed based on this research?

    I can almost see it now... Some drunk, slobbering fool suing the party he asked out.

  • A team of scientists have found that to the brain, a social snub is just like stubbing a toe.'

    The pain of rejection... the agony of da feet...
  • OK, I don't see how this is new. The pain of rejection is not real physical pain. All the article says is that it involves similar regions of the brain. The fact that it is related to physical pain has been proven by authors, otherwise they wouldn't use it. Granted, they affect the same region of the brain, but they're still distinctly different signals to the brain. Oh, yeah, and the quote at the bottom of the page is very appropriate: "If you suspect a man, don't employ him."
  • Would you also possibly have a high tolerance for "social" pain?

    Could this be a future extension of this study to find whether or not people who push themselves physically to the limits of human performance also appear to be the people who are the very least concerned with what others think about them?

    Most "great" athletes say they are competing against only one person -- themselves.

    In addition, could this relate at a low level to people with high tolerance for pain coming across as somewhat "anti-social
  • From:

    http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/articles.as p ?i d=25788

    Constant rejection can adversely affect the body as it can lead to poor mental health, depression, anxiety and feelings of loneliness, said assistant psychology professor Shelly Gable.

    "Not feeling socially integrated can have a higher risk of mortality than smoking," she said.

    According to the 2002 Annual Review of Psychology, individuals who suffer from major depression are at higher risk of having heart attacks compared with those with no

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