This project investigates the influence of patient social status on pain assessment/management practices (PAMP) which rests on the ability of health-care practitioners to empathize with the experience of the pain patient. Two theoretical models are proposed and tested: social status effect and its psychosocial accounts (Model 1), and social status buffer effect models (Model 2). Model 1 hypothesizes a patient social status effect on PAMP and, based on the Dehumanization and Social Representation Theories, suggests two potentially related mediators: dehumanization and body representation. Drawing upon the Contextual Model of Gender biases in PAMP, Model 2 predicts that patient social status may also moderate the influence of contextual cues on PAMP.
7 tasks are organized in 3 work packages (WP). WP1 includes 4 tasks to investigate Model 1. WP2 includes two tasks and seeks empirical support for Model 2 with an experimental paradigm. WP3 aims at the integration of all the empirical results with the reviewed literature and the diffusion of results to the scientific and health professional communities.