Social skills moderate pain sensitivity during acute psychosocial stress: an experimental study using the Trier Social Stress Test

Individuals with higher social skills, particularly those with effective encoding abilities and lower trait anxiety, exhibited greater pain tolerance under stress, although acute social stress did not produce an overall change in PPT. These findings suggest that social communication competence may serve as a resilience factor in stress-related pain modulation, although elevated anxiety levels may attenuate such benefits.