Extraversion and pain.

According to Eysenck's (1957, 1960, 1967) theory of personality, extroverts are posited as having higher pain thresholds and greater pain tolerance than introverts. The evidence for these hypothesized relationships is reviewed. Findings appear inconclusive in both cases. Probability pooling (Mosteller & Bush, 1954) is therefore performed, grouping the comparable studies and carrying out overall tests of significance. Results support the hypothesized relationships between extraversion and pain threshold and between extraversion and pain tolerance. Possible reasons why certain studies failed to find these results are discussed.