The conventional wisdom is – “Rip off a band-aid quickly and the total pain will be less than if you do it slowly.” I just read interesting research by Dan Ariely, author of the New York Times Bestseller, Predictably Irrational. His studies consistently show that people feel less pain if a painful procedure is done with lower intensity of pain over a longer period of time, than if it is done with high intensity for a shorter duration.

An interesting video on the psychology of happiness. (about 20 min)