Lay theories toward cancer and myocardial infarction: a trans-cultural comparison of Germans and Spaniards

The objective of this study was a transcultural comparison regarding illness-related causal and control attributes using a survey of healthy Germans in Germany, Spaniards in Spain and Spaniards in Germany. Each group contained 100 persons, matched according to sex, age and education. Germans showed more pronounced internal causal as well as control beliefs while Spaniards in Germany showed fatalistic attribution and Spaniards in Spain placed more emphasis on social aspects. It was possible to correctly assign over 75 percent of persons to a group depending on their characteristics in terms of causal and control attributions. Considerations of cultural and migration-related factors regarding public health appear especially promising.