Abstract

This study aimed to examine the effect of attribution style on negative experiences on perceived injustice on individuals with chronic pain. Participants were divided into chronic pain and non-chronic pain groups according to chronic pain diagnosis criteria, and classified as internal attribution and external attribution groups. All participants performed internal and external attribution tasks and conducted an ultimatum game(UG) to check the degree of perceived injustice. Current studies have shown that people with internal attribution styles in extremely unfair conditions have significantly more perceived injustice than those with external attribution styles in the chronic pain group. On the other hand, in ambiguous unfair conditions, there were no differences between those with external attribution styles and those with internal attribution styles among the chronic pain group. Unlike the non-chronic pain group, chronic pain groups were found to have different perceived unfairness depending on the attribution style in extremely unfair situations. This means that chronic pain with internal attribution styles places more value on absolute benefits than relative losses.