The role of social and temporal comparison in the perception of bodily sensations.

In the perception of bodily sensations, top down modulation guided by attention, expectations, mood, and context cues can be as influential as sensory information. To identify moderators which have an impact on the outcome of the perceptual process independent from afferent input is of high clinical importance: inadequate perception of internal sensations has been found to be related to dysfunctional health management and to morbidity and mortality in chronic disease. This project introduces a new approach to study the perception of internal sensations which is based on theory development and research on social and temporal comparison. Despite evidence for strong effects of social comparison on self-evaluation, comparison processes in the perception of bodily sensations have been overlooked in recent research. Key features of the methodology used in this project will include implicit and explicit measures of the evaluation of experimentally induced bodily sensations and illness-related stimuli in different social and temporal comparison contexts. Furthermore, we will explore the impact of comparison on behavioural variables such as tolerance for breathlessness during exercise and exercise performance. Aim of this project is to provide the basis for the development of interventions using comparison processes to reduce sensation-related threat and to improve health management in chronic disease.

Keywords:Social psychophysics, Symptom perception, Temporal comparison, Social comparison

Disciplines:Social psychology, Animal experimental and comparative psychology, Applied psychology, Human experimental psychology