Combining Animal-assisted Intervention and Placebo-induced Analgesia

Participants receive the same verbal information as in the Placebo condition. Additionally, participants will receive the same verbal information as in the Dog only condition.

"Participants receive verbal information that they are receiving an analgesic cream (i.e. Antidolor, containing Lidocain), which has been shown to produce significant pain reduction in previous clinical trials. However, they will receive an inert cream."

"Participants will get a therapeutic rationale for the presence of the dog. The rationale is supported in the literature and therefore not invented for the purpose of this study. Participants will be told that: Studies have shown the presence of an animal can affect pain perception because the presence and the interaction with an animal can increase our Oxytocin level. Therefore, the investigators want to examine if the presence of a dog has an impact on your pain perception. While participants have to wait for the action time of the cream they are allowed to pet the dog. The intensity of interaction will be documented and be rated on a scale from 1-5 (1=very low degree of interaction, 5=very high degree of interaction). During the experiment the dog will be lying in the room with some distance to participants to avoid further physical interaction. The dog will always be lying at the same spot. Participants will still be able to see the dog."

Participants in this condition will receive no intervention. All instructions will be conveyed in a standardized manner to ensure that the participant-experimenter relationship is comparable in terms of friendliness and attention across all four conditions.