A pain reliever that alters perceptions of risk
People who took acetaminophen rated activities like “bungee jumping off a tall bridge” and “speaking your mind about an unpopular issue in a meeting at work” as less risky than people who took a placebo, researchers found.
Use of the drug also led people to take more risks in an experiment where they could earn rewards by inflating a virtual balloon on a computer: Sometimes they went too far and the balloon popped.
The study was published online in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.
Release date: 8 September 2020
Source: Ohio State University