Why it won't happen to me: Perceptions of risk factors and susceptibility.

Abstract

Four studies were conducted with college student subjects to examine: (1) perceptions of susceptibility to health and safety risks; (2) factors that subjects see as important in determining their susceptibility; and (3) subjects' actual standing on objective risk factors. Subjects were generally unbiased about hereditary risk factors and were even somewhat pessimistic about environmental risk factors. Their views of their own actions and psychological attributes, however, were excessively optimistic. Few acknowledged actions or psychological attributes that increased their risk. This pattern of findings helps to explain why risks thought to be controllable (i.e., preventable by personal action) are likely to evoke unrealistic optimism about susceptibility. Family histories of health problems were incorporated into judgments of susceptibility, but, except for smoking, correlations between behavioral risk factors and judgments of susceptibility were surprisingly weak. Self-esteem enhancement is suggested as a motive that could explain many of the present findings. Several recommendations are offered for health campaigns that seek to produce more realistic perceptions of susceptibility to health and safety problems.

Cites (22)

1. A theory of social comparison processes
   Festinger, Leon · 1954 · Human Relations
2. Unrealistic optimism about future life events
   Weinstein, Neil D. · 1980 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
3. Adjustment to threatening events: A theory of cognitive adaptation.
   Shelley E. Taylor · 1983 · American Psychologist
4. Judgment of contingency in depressed and nondepressed students: Sadder but wiser?
   Alloy, Lauren B., Abramson, Lyn Y. · 1979 · Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
5. Attribution of success and failure revisited, or: The motivational bias is alive and well in attribution theory
   Zuckerman, Miron · 1979 · Journal of Personality
6. Self-serving biases in the attribution process: A reexamination of the fact or fiction question.
   Gifford W. Bradley · 1978 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
7. The group polarization phenomenon.
   Myers, David G., Lamm, Helmut · 1976 · Psychological Bulletin
8. Unrealistic optimism about susceptibility to health problems
   Weinstein, Neil D. · 1982 · Journal of Behavioral Medicine
9. Selected Psychosocial Models and Correlates of Individual Health-Related Behaviors
   Becker, Marshall H., Haefner, Don P., Kasl, Stanislav V., Kihscht, John P., Maiman, Lois A., Rosenstock, Irwin M. · 1977 · Medical Care
10. Health-Protective Behavior: An Exploratory Study
    Harris, Daniel M., Guten, Sharon · 1979 · Journal of Health and Social Behavior

Show all 22 references

Cited by (25)

1. Illusion and well‐being: A social psychological perspective on mental health
   Taylor, Shelley E., Brown, Jonathon D. · 1988 · Psychological Bulletin
2. Effects of optimism on psychological and physical well-being: theoretical overview and empirical update
   Scheier, Michael F., Carver, Charles S. · 1992 · Cognitive Therapy and Research
3. The precaution adoption process.
   Weinstein, Neil D. · 1988 · Health Psychology
4. Motivated inference: Self‐serving generation and evaluation of causal theories
   Kunda, Ziva · 1987 · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
5. Self-enhancement and self-protection: What they are and what they do
   Alicke, Mark D., Sedikides, Constantine · 2009 · European Review of Social Psychology

See all 1,029