Judgments of Refugees’ Sensitivity to Pain: Evidence for a Sensitization Effect

Refugees are often marginalized, vulnerable, and at-risk for substandard healthcare and pain management. Yet, little is known about how other individuals evaluate refugees’ pain sensitivity. As such, the current work examined how people evaluate refugees’ sensitivity to physical, emotional, and psychological pain. Across six studies involving university students, MTurk workers, and Prolific workers in the United States and Canada (N = 1,731), we found evidence consistent with a sensitization effect. Participants reported that, compared to otherwise equivalent citizens, targets described as refugees would generally be more sensitive to pain. This effect generalized across White targets labelled as refugees from Ukraine and Latino/a targets described as refugees from El Salvador, and influenced judgments about how much social support targets would need to cope with their pain.