Kai Karos

Kai Karos is an Assistant Professor in the group of Experimental Health Psychology, Department of Clinical Psychological Science at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. He has a background in experimental clinical psychology (MSc, 2012) and he completed his PhD at the KU Leuven in Belgium, focusing on the effects of social threat on the experience and expression of pain. Since then, his research at large has focussed on the sociocultural dynamics in pain, with a special focus on the ways that pain interferes with human social needs (e.g., the need to belong, the need for justice, and the need for autonomy). His research is primarily inspired by social, health, and learning psychology, with a special focus on experimental laboratory studies that attempt to mimic pain-relevant interpersonal interactions in the real world. 

More specifically, his research focuses on topics such as the social transmission and communication of pain, stigmatization, and invalidation in the context of pain, the effects of injustice on the perception and expression of pain, pain estimation and assessment, the role of social support in pain, and the role of social context in the acquisition and extinction of pain-related fear and avoidance behaviour. As such, his research is highly relevant to better understand mechanisms underlying health inequities, where factors such as stigmatization and injustice are central. He is also a strong advocate for a wider focus of pain science, away from the sole focus on individuals and towards a broader appreciation and understanding of systemic and socio-cultural forces in healthcare, culture, and politics that affect pain care and health equity.  Kai is also founding committee member of the Special Interest Group on Social Aspects of Pain of the International Association for Pain. Kai has been collaborating with Dr. Vervoort for years, most notably by collaborating as editors for the first book on interpersonal dynamics of pain entitled “Social and interpersonal dynamics in pain: We don’t suffer alone”.