Wow, this is fascinating speculation, thanks for posting.
The section on pain varying with the social environment was especially interesting. It reminded me of the (common but not uncontroversial) parenting strategy whereby babies are left to cry at night, so as to avoid positively reinforcing crying and instead train them to sleep unaided.
Would it suggest that exhortations to ‘stop being a wuss’ were actually effective? The nearby people are effectively precommitting to not be moved by visible suffering, which might reduce the incentive for the victim to experience pain.
Wow, this is fascinating speculation, thanks for posting.
The section on pain varying with the social environment was especially interesting. It reminded me of the (common but not uncontroversial) parenting strategy whereby babies are left to cry at night, so as to avoid positively reinforcing crying and instead train them to sleep unaided.
Would it suggest that exhortations to ‘stop being a wuss’ were actually effective? The nearby people are effectively precommitting to not be moved by visible suffering, which might reduce the incentive for the victim to experience pain.