Individual differences in pain perception and tolerance People respond to pain very differently (Denk & others, 2014). Women tend to have a lower pain threshold than men, rating pain as more unpleasant and displaying more intense physiological responses to painful stimuli (Jarrett, 2011). Racial differences also influence pain response. Several studies have found that African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asians tend to have a lower pain threshold than white Americans. On the other hand, Native Americans have a much higher pain threshold than white Americans, possibly reflecting cultural beliefs that pain should be endured without complaint (Palit & others, 2013). Such differences appear to reflect cultural beliefs about the meaning of pain, social expectations about how people express their experience of pain, and actual physiological differences among ethnic groups (Rahim-
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