Pain Overexposure Affects Self-Pain and Empathy in Athletes

Experiencing pain repeatedly or over prolonged periods has been shown to affect the pain experience itself. Similarly, people overexposed to others’ pain respond differently to expressions of it. Given that pain experience and empathy toward others’ pain share cognitive and cerebral mechanisms, examining how both are affected by overexposure to self-pain and others’ pain within the same population is of particular interest. Athletes represent one such population. This study thus aimed to compare pain perception and empathy in athletes and non-athletes. Thirty athletes and 28 non-athletes were asked to imagine their pain in different contexts and report its intensity and unpleasantness, assess the intensity and unpleasantness of others’ pain, and report their felt empathy for pain. They also completed questionnaires on pain, sports experiences, and trait empathy. The main results show that athletes reported similar pain intensity but less unpleasantness for their own pain than non-athletes, comparable intensity and unpleasantness for others’ pain, and less empathy specifically for facial expressions depicting high pain. Together, these findings suggest reduced affective responding rather than changes in the sensory perception of pain. Several sport-specific mechanisms may explain these reductions, including greater habituation, stronger beliefs about pain controllability, regulatory flexibility, and the possibility that more sport-relevant contexts are required to fully engage athletes’ propensity for empathy. This study contributes to a better understanding of the complex relationship between repeated pain experience and empathy toward that state in others.