Research by Chou, Parmar and Galinsky argues for careful attention to user comfort, for example, close reviews of ergonomics, in spaces where people might experience economic insecurity. This team found that “The past decade has seen a rise in both economic insecurity and frequency of physical pain. The current research reveals a causal connection between these two growing and consequential social trends…We found that economic insecurity produced physical pain and reduced pain tolerance…The link between economic insecurity and physical pain emerged when people experienced the insecurity personally (unemployment), when they were in an insecure context (they were informed that their state had a relatively high level of unemployment), and when they contemplated past and future economic insecurity…we also established that the psychological experience of lacking control helped generate the causal link from economic insecurity to physical pain.”
Eileen Chou, Bidhan Parmar, and Adam Galinsky. “Economic Insecurity Increases Physical Pain.” Psychological Science, in press.
Sally Augustin, PhD, a cognitive scientist, is the editor of Research Design Connections (www.researchdesignconnections.com), a monthly subscription newsletter and free daily blog, where recent and classic research in the social, design, and physical sciences that can inform designers’ work are presented in straightforward language. Readers learn about the latest research findings immediately, before they’re available elsewhere. Sally, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, is also the author of Place Advantage: Applied Psychology for Interior Architecture (Wiley, 2009) and, with Cindy Coleman, The Designer’s Guide to Doing Research: Applying Knowledge to Inform Design (Wiley, 2012). She is a principal at Design With Science (www.designwithscience.com) and can be reached at sallyaugustin@designwithscience.com.