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Biomedical subjects

Paul Slovic

Publications and source records attributed to Paul Slovic.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Why worry? Worry, risk perceptions, and willingness to act to reduce medical errors.

Through the domain of medical errors, the role of worry and perceived risk in precautionary behaviors was examined in a convenience sample (N = 195, mean age = 42 years, 71% female). Worry was linked to fatality estimates. A model of the antecedents and consequences of worry also was tested. Risk characteristics such as dread and preventability, negative reactivity, and vulnerability to medical errors appeared to motivate worry about medical errors. Worry about medical errors was a better predictor of intentions to take precautionary actions than were risk perceptions. An understanding of how worry influences preventive efforts will help in building communication strategies to the public and in effectively engaging patients in the role of vigilant partner in care.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Numeracy and decision making.

A series of four studies explored how the ability to comprehend and transform probability numbers relates to performance on judgment and decision tasks. On the surface, the tasks in the four studies appear to be widely different; at a conceptual level, however, they all involve processing numbers and the potential to show an influence of affect. Findings were consistent with highly numerate individuals being more likely to retrieve and use appropriate numerical principles, thus making themselves less susceptible to framing effects, compared with less numerate individuals. In addition, the highly numerate tended to draw different (generally stronger or more precise) affective meaning from numbers and numerical comparisons, and their affective responses were more precise. Although generally helpful, this tendency may sometimes lead to worse decisions. The less numerate were influenced more by competing, irrelevant affective considerations. Analyses showed that the effect of numeracy was not due to general intelligence. Numerical ability appears to matter to judgments and decisions in important ways.

Adult↗
PubMed2005

Affect, risk, and decision making.

Risk is perceived and acted on in 2 fundamental ways. Risk as feelings refers to individuals' fast, instinctive, and intuitive reactions to danger. Risk as analysis brings logic, reason, and scientific deliberation to bear on risk management. Reliance on risk as feelings is described with "the affect heuristic." The authors trace the development of this heuristic across a variety of research paths. The authors also discuss some of the important practical implications resulting from ways that this heuristic impacts how people perceive and evaluate risk, and, more generally, how it influences all human decision making. Finally, some important implications of the affect heuristic for communication and decision making pertaining to cancer prevention and treatment are briefly discussed.

Affect↗
PubMed2005

Task complexity and older adults' decision-making competence.

This article reports progress in an ongoing research program examining older adults' decision-making competence (DMC). Using a theoretical framework that emphasizes the person-task fit in assessing DMC, the authors report the results of a study comparing older versus younger adults' decision performance on simple and complex tasks about health, finance, and nutrition. The authors hypothesized and found that increasing age and task complexity were related to greater comprehension errors and inconsistency in decision making. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that a large amount of age-related variance in performance on the decision tasks could be accounted for by exogenous social variables, health measures, basic cognitive skills, and attitudinal measures. The discussion emphasizes several directions for future research, including the need to validate the meaning of performance on these tasks for real-life decision processes.

Aged↗
PubMed2005

Can patients be part of the solution? Views on their role in preventing medical errors.

Patients have the potential to play an important role in preventing medical errors. Yet little is known about how to effectively engage patients in this role as a "vigilant partner" in care. Respondents were asked to assess the perceived effectiveness of fourteen recommended actions for preventing medical errors. The findings indicate that most of the actions are viewed as effective. However, respondents also indicate that they are unlikely to engage in many of the recommended actions. Having a greater sense of self-efficacy in being able to prevent medical errors is significantly linked with a greater reported likelihood of engaging in preventive action.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Public understanding of the illnesses caused by cigarette smoking.

A nationwide survey of 776 U.S. residents, divided approximately equally between teenagers and adults, smokers and nonsmokers, assessed public understanding of the illnesses caused by smoking. When respondents were asked what illnesses are caused by smoking, lung cancer was the only illness that could be identified by a clear majority of respondents. Roughly half mentioned emphysema. A much smaller percentage of respondents were able to mention any cardiovascular disease or any kind of cancer other than lung cancer. People also underestimated the death rate from lung cancer and overestimated survival duration. Only a minority realized that emphysema is incurable. Large portions of the sample said they knew only a little about the pain and suffering experienced by individuals with these illnesses. The results demonstrated that even though people recognize that smoking can lead to adverse health consequences, they do not have even a basic understanding of the nature and severity of these consequences.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Accuracy and optimism in smokers' beliefs about quitting.

Data collected in two nationwide surveys (N=361 and N=788) provide insight into the extent to which smokers recognize the ease of addiction and the difficulty of quitting. Smokers generally acknowledge that addiction occurs quickly and that smokers have considerable difficulty quitting. Youth smokers, however, generally believe that they would have less difficulty than other smokers and that they are less addicted than the average smoker. Adult smokers tend to say they are not different from other smokers in addiction or ability to quit. Nevertheless, both youth and adult smokers who want to quit greatly overestimate the likelihood that they will succeed in the coming year. Few smokers think about how long they will smoke when they first begin, and the reluctance to believe that they could have serious difficulty quitting may help in the progression from experimental to established smoker.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

Discrimination, vulnerability, and justice in the face of risk.

Recent research finds that perceived risk is closely associated with race and gender. In surveys of the American public a subset of white males stand out for their uniformly low perceptions of environmental health risks, while most nonwhite and nonmale respondents reveal higher perceived risk. Such findings have been attributed to the advantageous position of white males in American social life. This article explores the linked possibility that this demographic pattern is driven not simply by the social advantages or disadvantages embodied in race or gender, but by the subjective experience of vulnerability and by sociopolitical evaluations pertaining to environmental injustice. Indices of environmental injustice and social vulnerability were developed as part of a U.S. National Risk Survey (n= 1,192) in order to examine their effect on perceived risk. It was found that those who regarded themselves as vulnerable and supported belief statements consistent with the environmental justice thesis offered higher risk ratings across a range of hazards. Multivariate analysis indicates that our measures of vulnerability and environmental injustice predict perceived risk but do not account for all of the effects of race and gender. The article closes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for further work on vulnerability and risk, risk communication, and risk management practices generally.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2004

Risk as analysis and risk as feelings: some thoughts about affect, reason, risk, and rationality.

Modern theories in cognitive psychology and neuroscience indicate that there are two fundamental ways in which human beings comprehend risk. The "analytic system" uses algorithms and normative rules, such as probability calculus, formal logic, and risk assessment. It is relatively slow, effortful, and requires conscious control. The "experiential system" is intuitive, fast, mostly automatic, and not very accessible to conscious awareness. The experiential system enabled human beings to survive during their long period of evolution and remains today the most natural and most common way to respond to risk. It relies on images and associations, linked by experience to emotion and affect (a feeling that something is good or bad). This system represents risk as a feeling that tells us whether it is safe to walk down this dark street or drink this strange-smelling water. Proponents of formal risk analysis tend to view affective responses to risk as irrational. Current wisdom disputes this view. The rational and the experiential systems operate in parallel and each seems to depend on the other for guidance. Studies have demonstrated that analytic reasoning cannot be effective unless it is guided by emotion and affect. Rational decision making requires proper integration of both modes of thought. Both systems have their advantages, biases, and limitations. Now that we are beginning to understand the complex interplay between emotion and reason that is essential to rational behavior, the challenge before us is to think creatively about what this means for managing risk. On the one hand, how do we apply reason to temper the strong emotions engendered by some risk events? On the other hand, how do we infuse needed "doses of feeling" into circumstances where lack of experience may otherwise leave us too "coldly rational"? This article addresses these important questions.

Affect↗
PubMed2004

Expert and public perception of risk from biotechnology.

Risk perceptions of a series of biotechnology applications were examined in a public (nonexpert) sample and an expert sample. Compared with the experts, the public perceived all biotechnology applications as more risky. Both groups perceived food-related applications to be riskier than medical applications. Compared with the public, experts perceived both food and medical applications as less harmful and more useful. Experts also judged the risks posed from medical biotechnology applications as more familiar and acknowledged by people and science. Lay estimates of the risk of food applications were predicted by potential harm, potential benefits, science knowledge, and familiarity; experts' estimates were predicted only by harm and benefits. Lay estimates of the risk of medical applications were predicted by potential harm; experts' estimates were predicted by potential benefits, number and type of people exposed, and science knowledge. We discuss the implications of the results for risk communication about and management of different types of biotechnologies.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

Strategies for reporting health plan performance information to consumers: evidence from controlled studies.

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether presentation approaches designed to be more meaningful result in greater weighting of quality information in decisions. An emerging body of research indicates that the way information is presented affects how it is interpreted and how it is weighted in decisions. Comparative health plan performance reports are not being used by consumers possibly because the information presented is difficult to use. The next generation of these reports should be designed to support decision making. DESIGN AND STUDY PARTICIPANTS: The study uses a controlled experimental design. Participants (n = 162) were randomly assigned to different conditions and asked to complete tasks related to using quality information and making health plan selections. Dependent variables included the amount of weight given to quality information in choices and decision accuracy. RESULTS: Some presentation approaches make it easier for users to process and integrate quality data into their choices. However, other presentation formats influence consumers' decisions in ways that undermine their self-interest. CONCLUSIONS: Findings indicate that presenting quality data in a more evaluable format increases the weight it carries in consumer decisions. Every change made in the presentation of comparative data has the potential to influence decisions. Those who disseminate information have a responsibility to be aware of how they use that influence and to direct it in productive and defensible ways. The alternative is to manipulate people in ways that are unknown, are not thought out, or are not defensible, but are no less manipulative.

Adult↗