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"I Think I Do but I Don't": Heightened (Breast) Cancer Concern as a Function of Availability Bias.
- Source :
- Women (2673-4184); Jun2024, Vol. 4 Issue 2, p201-215, 15p
- Publication Year :
- 2024
-
Abstract
- Background: Women report a heightened concern of (breast) cancer, relative to other chronic conditions. This experimental study investigated whether such heightened concern may be a function of availability bias. Methods: participants (N = 750; 100% female) were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions: in the recall condition, they were asked to name the health condition they feared most; in the recognition condition, they picked the disease they feared most out of a list of chronic conditions. Results: The probability of selecting cancer as the most frightening disease varied as a function of experimental condition χ<superscript>2</superscript> (10) = 112.13, p < 0.001. Participants in the recall condition were almost twice as likely to select cancer as the most frightening disease (N = 240, 59.10%) as those in the recognition condition (N = 121, 35.20%), who most frequently selected neurological diseases as the most threatening. The majority of participants believed that cancer was the disease receiving the most media attention (86.27%) (prior to the COVID-19 pandemic), and the one accounting for the highest number of deaths among Spanish females (63.50%). Conclusions: altogether, these results provide experimental evidence that availability bias may partly account for misperceptions and a heightened fear of cancer, which may narrow the scope of women's information-seeking and health-preventive behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- RECOGNITION (Psychology)
FEAR
WOUNDS & injuries
SCALE analysis (Psychology)
ATTITUDES toward illness
T-test (Statistics)
DATA analysis
CARDIOVASCULAR diseases
ALZHEIMER'S disease
CRONBACH'S alpha
BREAST tumors
STATISTICAL sampling
RANDOMIZED controlled trials
SPANIARDS
CHI-squared test
DESCRIPTIVE statistics
HIV infections
RESPIRATORY diseases
SEVERITY of illness index
CHRONIC diseases
ATTITUDE (Psychology)
MASS media
MEMORY
STATISTICS
HEALTH behavior
WOMEN'S health
RISK perception
CONFIDENCE intervals
TUMORS
DATA analysis software
AIDS
DIABETES
INFORMATION-seeking behavior
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 26734184
- Volume :
- 4
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Women (2673-4184)
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 178153436
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3390/women4020015