Thanks for the reply, Cynthia! If I understand correctly, even if it was known with certainty that:
1 h of disabling pain in humans was 10 times as bad as 1 h of hurtful pain in humans, 1 h of disabling pain in shrimps could be more/​less than 10 times as bas as 1 h of hurtful pain in shrimps? I think you are implying it could indeed be more/​less than 10 times as bad.
1 h of disabling pain in humans was 10 times as bad as 1 h of hurtful pain in humans, 10 h of disabling pain in humans could be more/​less than 10 times as bad as 10 h of hurtful pain in humans? I think you are implying it could indeed be more/​less than 10 times as bad.
Hi Vasco, thanks for this follow up. I believe we cannot rule out the possibilities you mentioned. That is, the answer could be yes to both questions. Even with humans, there is high variability in preference for intense but short aversiveness, as compared to moderate but longer aversion.
One solution we have been adopting lately is to simply ‘add up’ times in the different categories (with no weighting or conversion). Since the ‘boundaries between intensity categories’ are acknowledged to be uncertain (i.e., we assign probabilities to each intensity category), adding up the time spent in different intensities follows naturally from this uncertainty. For instance, hours in Hurtful, Disabling, and Excruciating pain can be added together to report total time in ‘moderate to intense pain,’ or hours in Disabling, and Excruciating pain can be added together to report total time in ‘intense pain’.
Thanks for the reply, Cynthia! If I understand correctly, even if it was known with certainty that:
1 h of disabling pain in humans was 10 times as bad as 1 h of hurtful pain in humans, 1 h of disabling pain in shrimps could be more/​less than 10 times as bas as 1 h of hurtful pain in shrimps? I think you are implying it could indeed be more/​less than 10 times as bad.
1 h of disabling pain in humans was 10 times as bad as 1 h of hurtful pain in humans, 10 h of disabling pain in humans could be more/​less than 10 times as bad as 10 h of hurtful pain in humans? I think you are implying it could indeed be more/​less than 10 times as bad.
Hi Vasco, thanks for this follow up. I believe we cannot rule out the possibilities you mentioned. That is, the answer could be yes to both questions. Even with humans, there is high variability in preference for intense but short aversiveness, as compared to moderate but longer aversion.
One solution we have been adopting lately is to simply ‘add up’ times in the different categories (with no weighting or conversion). Since the ‘boundaries between intensity categories’ are acknowledged to be uncertain (i.e., we assign probabilities to each intensity category), adding up the time spent in different intensities follows naturally from this uncertainty. For instance, hours in Hurtful, Disabling, and Excruciating pain can be added together to report total time in ‘moderate to intense pain,’ or hours in Disabling, and Excruciating pain can be added together to report total time in ‘intense pain’.
Thanks for clarifying, Cynthia!