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Reaping the Benefits and Avoiding the Risks: Unrealistic Optimism in the Health Domain.
Journal article

Reaping the Benefits and Avoiding the Risks: Unrealistic Optimism in the Health Domain.

  • Hanoch Y School of Psychology, Cognition Institute, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth, UK.
  • Rolison J Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, UK.
  • Freund AM Department of Psychology and University Research Priority Program Dynamics of Healthy Aging, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • 2018-10-05
Published in:
  • Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis. - 2019
Benefits
medical
numeracy
risks
unrealistic optimism
Adult
Aged
Female
Health Risk Behaviors
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Optimism
Perception
Risk Reduction Behavior
Surveys and Questionnaires
Young Adult
English People's perceptions of benefits and risks play a key role in their acceptance or rejection of medical interventions, yet these perceptions may be poorly calibrated. This online study with N = 373 adults aged 19-76 years focused on unrealistic optimism in the health domain. Participants indicated how likely they were to experience benefits and risks associated with medical conditions and completed objective and subjective numeracy scales. Participants exhibited optimistic views about the likelihood of experiencing the benefits and the side effects of treatment options described in the scenarios. Objective and subjective numeracy were not associated with more accurate ratings. Moreover, participants' underestimation of the risks was significantly greater than their overestimation of the benefits. From an applied perspective, these results suggest that clinicians may need to ensure that patients do not underestimate risks of medical interventions, and that they convey realistic expectations about the benefits that can be obtained with certain procedures.
Language
  • English
Open access status
green
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.ch/global/documents/47439
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