The purpose of the research was to examine the influence of the social context, i.e. the presence of the female assistant experimenter as a passive observer in the experiment, on the experience of experimentally induced pain. The painful stimuli were inflicted by the circulation of hot air on the female participants’ palm. The measures of the pain experience were the pain threshold, the tolerance of an unpleasant stimulant and the self-assessment of the level of discomfort. All the female participants passed through two experimental situations within a period of ten days and the passive observer was present only in the first measuring situation. A significant influence of a passive person on the pain experience has been found: in the situation where a passive person was present during measuring, the female participants took more time to say that they had a burning sensation and they showed a higher pain tolerance. It has been found, nevertheless, that the experimental manipulation did not influence the estimation of discomfort – the female participants equally estimated the experience of discomfort during both measuring situations. In order to control the possible influence of the order of measuring on the obtained effects, the research was conducted in an independent control group, where both measurements were carried out without the presence of a passive observer. There were no differences between the first and second measurements in the control group, suggesting that the obtained difference in the experimental group can be attributed to the manipulation of the social context.

pain experience, pain tolerance, social context, presence of a passive observer