title: Real men are made, not born! Incidental exposure to energy drinks may promote men's tolerance of physical pain.
abstract: The energy drink market has grown exponentially since the debut of Red Bull. Advertising of energy drinks tends to reinforce an emphasis on masculine identification. However, no previous study has addressed the symbolic effect of energy drinks on pain tolerance, that is, a particular masculine characteristic. We conducted a priming-based experiment to show that energy drink primes elevated men's pain tolerance. Induced conformity to masculinity norms mediated the priming effect of energy drinks on pain tolerance. These findings suggest that mere reminders of masculinity-related products can lead men to behave accordingly in seemingly irrelevant domains (i.e., pain tolerance). Besides distraction and placebo treatment, the connection between a symbolic masculinity prime and greater tolerance of pain may shed lights on an alternative route for pain control.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Education, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Darren
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Abetkoff
authors.affiliation: Institute of Education, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Torulf
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Karlsson
authors.affiliation: Institute of Education, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wen-Bin
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Chiou
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D061215:Energy Drinks; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D057228:Masculinity; D008571:Men / Q000523:psychology*; D017288:Pain Threshold / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Conformity to masculine norms; energy drinks; pain tolerance; priming