More friends, less pain? Higher social support predicts estimation of less pain through impression and expected buffering effect

We tested whether targets receiving high (vs. low) social support would be expected to experience less emotional and physical pain because higher social support is expected to work as a buffer against pain. Participants (n = 330) were assigned to one of six conditions (social support: high vs. low vs. control × target gender: male vs. female). Participants estimated the emotional (but not physical) pain of targets receiving high social support to be lower than that of those receiving low social support. A test of a serial mediation model (i.e., social support → target impression → expected buffering effect → pain estimation) revealed that participants rated high social support targets’ impression more positively, which predicted expectation of a larger emotional/physical buffering effect, which in turn was associated with estimation of lower emotional/physical pain.