registered experiment the welt at its peak averaged 3.5 mm when people kept their attention on their own arm and 5.0 mm when they watched video clips

Field Notes is Silicon Canals' column on the human behaviour behind the work — decision-making, attention, identity, and the everyday observations that explain how people live an…

Mind Why looking away during a skin prick may carry a physical cost — in one pre-registered experiment the welt at its peak averaged 3.5 mm when people kept their attention on their own arm and 5.0 mm when they watched video clips Three pre-registered experiments ran a standard histamine skin prick test on the forearm at least twice per person and varied the instruction about where to put their attention. Attending to the arm produced smaller reactions in roughly nine out of ten participants. The sample is 57 healthy adults, mostly women, average age mid-twenties, and the authors write that a reduced reaction may not universally reflect beneficial regulation.