Choosing to Suffer as a Consequence of Expecting to Suffer: Why Do People Do It?

In three previous studies, most subjects who anticipated having to perform an unpleasant task (e.g., eat a worm) and who were then offered a choice of that or a neutral task chose the unpleasant task. It was hypothesized that this "choosing to suffer" effect was produced by the subjects' attempt to make sense of their anticipated suffering, through one of three kinds of change in their conception of themselves and the situation: (a) they deserved the suffering, (b) they were brave, or (c) the worm was not too bad. Subjects anticipating a neutral task did not change on these measures, while subjects eating a worm changed significantly, indicating that anticipated suffering did cause the predicted reconceptualizations. Changes in these three kinds of conception predicted subject's choice or not of eating the worm, indicating that these changes produced the subsequent choice. Finally, subjects who saw themselves as either more brave or more deserving also chose to administer painful electric shocks to themselves, while subjects who had changed their conceptions of the worm did not, indicating that these conceptual changes can affect behavior in situations different from that which initially caused the conceptual changes.