The impact of religion, spirituality, and empathy factors on acute pain and prosocial behaviors in a diverse sample.

Abstract

Religion and spirituality (R/S) literature is limited in its study of acute pain experiences within diverse samples. The present study aimed to distinguish how self-reported spirituality and empathy influence generosity within the context of the acute pain experience within a diverse sample. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) tests via SPSS 26.0 assessed differences of pain task on generosity task performance among participants of generous and greedy task conditions. Results of ANCOVAs found no significant relationship between anticipation of acute pain and subsequent generosity or between acute pain scores and subsequent generosity, and therefore there were no moderators or covariates of those relationships. There was a significant relationship between initial generosity condition and subsequent generosity choice. Physiological cold pressor data were analyzed via an analysis of variance (ANOVA) as a manipulation check of acute pain, with skin temperature and skin conductance suggesting the manipulation was successful, though heart rate showed nonsignificant change. Posthoc moderation analysis was conducted via an ANCOVA model. Each potential moderator was dichotomized into low score and high score groups via median split. Empathy was found to be a moderator of the relationship between generosity intervention group and subsequent generosity, with those in the generous condition and high in empathy most likely to pay forward generosity. Spirituality was not a moderator of the relationship between generosity intervention group and subsequent generosity. This study demonstrated the unique contributions of R/S and empathy factors to the overall picture of pain and generosity in a diverse sample and provides directions for future research.