• Patrice Rusconi, Paolo Riva, Paolo Cherubini, and Lorenzo Montali.
• Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza Ateneo Nuovo 1, 20126, Milano, Italy. p.rusconi3@campus.unimib.it
• J Behav Med. 2010 Feb 1; 33 (1): 60-71.

AbstractThis article presents two experiments aiming to investigate the adoption of a graduated measure to describe credibility attribution by observers who evaluate patients' pain accounts. A total of 160 medical students were required to express a credibility judgment on the pain intensity level of hypothetical patients. We used 16 vignettes based on a factorial mixed-design. Within-participants factors were the reported pain, the presence of a physical sign, the patient's facial expression and the patient's gender, and between-groups factors were the patient's age and the geographical distribution of the patient's name. Results confirm the well-established tendency not to believe patients' self-reports and provide information regarding the evaluators' uncertainty. The findings suggest that a graduated measure is useful for assessing the degree of uncertainty of the observers and subtle effects of different factors upon the judgment of patient's pain.

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