Research assessed the effects of the nonverbal behavior of healthcare providers on pain reports and placebo effects in 51 males and 53 females randomly divided into four groups. The results revealed no differences between the groups in the reduced pain and showed that healthy males and females may differ in underlying mechanisms of placebo effects. The context in which a medical or psychological treatment is administered can increase or decrease the effect of that treatment and healthcare providers are an important component of that context.
Thus, the providers features, such as their gender for example, and their nonverbal behaviors, can have profound impacts on treatment outcomes. Research showed that healthcare providers positive nonverbal behaviors (e.g.
smiling, enhanced eye contact, positive tone of voice) led to lower pain reports. Conversely, negative nonverbal behaviors (e.g.
lack of smiling, minimal eye contact, flat tone of voice) led to higher pain reports. In the same research line, another study revealed that high nonverbal support from video-recorded healthcare providers increased participants' pain tolerance. To systematically test the placebo effects of healthcare providers' positive nonverbal behaviors on reports of pain, Hojjat Daniali and collaborators carried out a study, supported by the BIAL Foundation, in which 51 male and 53 female participants (a total of 104) were randomly assigned to four groups, that were displayed positive facial expressions, pos.