Trial reportJournal of studies on alcohol and drugs2025
Too Insensitive to Care: Alcohol Increases Human Aggression by Increasing Pain Threshold.
Trial report in Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- BDNF and IL-33 Dynamics in an Ultrasound Stress Model of Fibromyalgia-like Phenotypes.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Association Between Systemic Symptoms and Recovery in Acute Low Back Pain: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Sequential Cranial and Overlooked Cervical Spine Injuries Due to Head Trauma: A Billiard-Like Mechanism.Cureus · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveFor thousands of years, people have used alcohol to reduce their sensitivity to physical and emotional pain. Previous research has shown that alcohol increases the pain threshold. Previous research has also shown that the pain threshold is positively associated with aggression. This research tests the novel hypothesis that the relationship between alcohol and aggression is mediated by an increased pain threshold.
methodTo replicate findings, two independent laboratory experiments were conducted (Experiment 1:
resultsParticipants who consumed an alcoholic beverage had a higher pain threshold level than those who consumed a placebo beverage. The less pain participants felt themselves, the more pain they inflicted on their ostensible partner via electric shock. Results were nearly identical across both experiments.
conclusionsThese findings provide novel evidence regarding one possible reason why intoxicated people behave more aggressively than sober people do. Alcohol intoxication increases aggression partially through its effect on increasing the pain threshold.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.