(Re-post, to correct daft spelling arising from computer with a mind of it's own)

I distrust it when people talk about other people as having a "high pain threshold" - or indeed of people who say they have "a low pain threshold".

It was frequently asserted, as a kind of mitigating factor for people accused of cruelty towards their black slaves or servants that Africans were less sesnsative to pain. The same kind of suggestion was made about poor people generally. "It just isn't the same for them as it would be for you".

I suspect that the difference between the way people react to pain-inducing things is far more likely to arise from other factors which have nothing to do with the actual sensation felt.