Why People Prefer More Pain

We experimented to see how much pain our volunteers could handle. Go to https://headspace-web.app.link/e/vstm to try Headspace for free using the code VERITASIUM

Studies on Headspace - https://ve42.co/Headspace

A massive thank you to Rayner Moss for recreating the experiment equipment and making this shoot happen.

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Special thanks to our Patreon supporters! Join the community to help us keep our videos free, forever: https://ve42.co/PatreonDE

Adam Foreman, Anton Ragin, Balkrishna Heroor, Bertrand Serlet, Bill Linder, Blake Byers, Bruce, Burt Humburg, Dave Kircher, David Johnston, Evgeny Skvortsov, Garrett Mueller, Gnare, gpoly, I. H., John H. Austin, Jr., John Kiehl, Josh Hibschman, Juan Benet, KeyWestr, Kyi, Lee Redden, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Matthias Wrobel, Max Paladino, Meekay, Meg Noah, Michael Krugman, Name, Orlando Bassotto, Paul Peijzel, Richard Sundvall, Sam Lutfi, Stephen Wilcox, Tj Steyn, Toni, TTST, Ubiquity Ventures, Wolfee.

If you’re looking for a molecular modeling kit, try Snatoms, a kit I invented where the atoms snap together magnetically - https://ve42.co/SnatomsV

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References:
Kahneman, D. et al. (1993). When More Pain Is Preferred to Less: Adding a Better End. Psychological Science - https://ve42.co/Kahneman1993
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux - https://ve42.co/FastAndSlow
Fredrickson, B. L., Kahneman, D. (1993). Duration neglect in retrospective evaluations of affective episodes. Journal of personality and social psychology - https://ve42.co/Fredrickson1993
Kahneman, D., Tversky, A. (1972). Subjective probability: A judgment of representativeness. Cognitive Psychology - https://ve42.co/Kahneman1972
Diener, E. et al. (2001). End Effects of Rated Life Quality: The James Dean Effect. Psychological Science - https://ve42.co/Deiner2001
Redelmeier, D. A. et al. (2003). Memories of colonoscopy: a randomized trial. Pain - https://ve42.co/Redelmeier2003
Kemp, S. et al. (2008). A test of the peak-end rule with extended autobiographical events. Memory & Cognition - https://ve42.co/Kemp2008

Images & Video:
Daniel Kahneman via UNSW - https://ve42.co/ImgKahneman
Barbara Fredrickson via UNC - https://ve42.co/ImgFredrickson
Stephen Gould via achievement.org - https://ve42.co/ImgGould
Amos Tversky via LGT - https://ve42.co/ImgTversky

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Directed by Petr Lebedev
Written by Petr Lebedev and Derek Muller
Edited by Peter Nelson
Animated by Fabio Albertelli and Ivy Tello
Illustrated by Jakub Misiek
Filmed by Derek Muller and Bernard Lau
Produced by Petr Lebedev, Derek Muller, Rob Beasley Spence, Owen Maher, David Szasz, Emily Taylor, Gregor Čavlović and Alistair Dann

Thumbnail contributions by Ren Hurley and Peter Sheppard

Additional video/photos supplied by Getty and Storyblocks
Music from Epidemic Sound