Self-Infliction of Pain Increases Unrealistic Optimism but not Risk-Taking

Past research has found that when people witness undeserved suffering of others, there is a tendency to exhibit a form of magical justice beliefs where they expect that the victims of suffering would be compensated with future rewards in impossible ways. However, whether or not this expectation would also generalize to their own suffering remained an open question.

In Study 1, we found that participants who chose to self-inflict physical pain became more unrealistically optimistic about their chances of winning a random lottery, suggesting that they expected their decisions to suffer pain would be rewarded in impossible ways. In Study 2, we examined if this expectation would translate to greater risk-taking on a financial risk task, but our findings did not support this – participants who chose to self-inflict physical pain did not take greater risks.