Ethnical and religious aspects are powerful sources of pressure on the individual, which underlie the latter’s
education and influence the way an illness in accepted and treated
Society and values also trigger different reactions to pain. While Italians and Jews react emotionally to pain,
Anglo-Saxons endure pain stoically, while the Irish even tend to deny they feel pain. Thus, they perceive pain
sensations as an immediately harmful fact and can only relax after taking some medication, unlike the Jews who
react not so much to the immediate sensation of pain as to its future significance, and can only relax once an
adequate explanation as to the causes of their pain has been provided