Chronic pain can shape lives in profound ways, from hastening an early retirement to causing a reliance on prescription painkillers. Yet studies into long-term pain reveal an even more insidious consequence — people in pain often make poorer decisions, including risky financial ventures and unhealthy food choices.
In laboratory gambling experiments, for example, participants are often asked to select cards from decks that are skewed towards different outcomes. Most players quickly learn to stick with the safer cards, but players with chronic pain often don’t, gambling large sums and accruing debt. In part, they may be more willing to gamble because they lack the subtle bodily changes — a racing heart, butterflies in the stomach, sweaty palms — that help us figure out when we’re about to make a bad decision. This is particularly true when we’re facing ambiguous choices that are hard to solve logically, where we're more likely ...
