361
Views
30
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Articles

Are direct or indirect measures of comparative risk better predictors of concern and behavioural intentions?

Pages 149-165 | Received 10 Jan 2008, Accepted 10 Jul 2008, Published online: 31 Oct 2008

References

  • Aucote , HM and Gold , RS . 2005 . Non-equivalence of direct and indirect measures of unrealistic optimism . Psychology, Health & Medicine , 10 : 194 – 201 .
  • Blalock , SJ , DeVellis , BM , Afifi , RA and Sandler , RS . 1990 . Risk perceptions and participation in colorectal cancer screening . Health Psychology , 9 : 792 – 806 .
  • Brewer , N , Chapman , GB , Gibbons , FX , Gerrard , M , McCaul , KD and Weinstein , ND . 2007 . Meta-analysis of the relationship between risk perception and health behavior: The example of vaccination . Health Psychology , 26 : 136 – 145 .
  • Brewer , NT , Weinstein , ND , Cuite , CL and Herringon , J . 2004 . Risk perceptions and their relation to risk behavior . Annals of Behavioral Medicine , 27 : 125 – 130 .
  • Chambers , J and Windschitl , PD . 2004 . Biases in social comparative judgments: The role of nonmotivated factors in above-average and comparative-optimism effects . Psychological Bulletin , 130 : 813 – 838 .
  • Chambers , J , Windschitl , PD and Suls , J . 2003 . Egocentrism, event frequency, and comparative optimism: When what happens frequently is ‘more likely to happen to me’ . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 29 : 1343 – 1356 .
  • Chapman , GB and Coups , EJ . 2006 . Emotions and preventative health behavior: Worry, regret and influenza vaccination . Health Psychology , 25 : 82 – 90 .
  • Covey , JA and Davies , A . 2004 . Are people unrealistically optimistic? It depends how you ask them . British Journal of Health Psychology , 9 : 39 – 49 .
  • Festinger , L . 1954 . A theory of social comparison processes . Human Relations , 7 : 117 – 140 .
  • French , D and Hevey , D . 2008 . What do people think about when answering questionnaires to assess unrealistic optimism about skin cancer? A think aloud study . Psychology, Health, & Medicine , 13 : 63 – 74 .
  • Gold , R . 2007 . The link between judgments of comparative risk and own risk: Further evidence . Psychology, Health, & Medicine , 12 : 238 – 247 .
  • Gurmankin , AD , Helweg-Larsen , M , Armstrong , K , Kimmel , SE and Volpp , KGM . 2005 . Comparing the standard rating scale and the magnifier scale for assessing risk perceptions . Medical Decision Making , 25 : 560 – 570 .
  • Helweg-Larsen , M and Shepperd , JA . 2001 . Do moderators of the optimistic bias affect personal or target risk estimates: A review of the literature . Personality and Social Psychology Review , 5 : 74 – 95 .
  • Janz , NK and Becker , MH . 1984 . The health belief model: A decade later . Health Education Quarterly , 11 : 1 – 47 .
  • Klar , Y and Ayal , S . 2004 . Event frequency and comparative optimism: Another look at the indirect method of self-others risks . Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , 38 : 331 – 351 .
  • Klar , Y and Giladi , EE . 1999 . Are most people happier than their peers, or are they just happy? . Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin , 5 : 585 – 594 .
  • Klar , Y , Medding , A and Sarel , D . 1996 . Nonunique invulnerability: Singular versus distributional probabilities and unrealistic optimism in comparative risk judgments . Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes , 67 : 229 – 245 .
  • Klein , WMP . 1997 . Objective standards are not enough: Affective, self-evaluative, and behavioral responses to social comparisons information . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 72 : 763 – 774 .
  • Klein , WMP . 2002 . Comparative risk estimates relative to the average peer predict behavioral intentions and concern about absolute risk . Risk, Decision, & Policy , 7 : 193 – 202 .
  • Klein , WMP . 2003 . Self-prescriptive, perceived, and actual attention to comparative risk information . Psychology and Health , 18 : 625 – 643 .
  • Lipkus , IM , Klein , WMP , Skinner , CS and Rimer , BK . 2005 . Breast cancer risk perceptions and breast cancer worry: What predicts what? . Journal of Risk Research , 8 : 439 – 452 .
  • Lipkus , IM , Lyna , PR and Rimer , BK . 2000 . Colorectal cancer risk perceptions and screening intentions in a minority population . Journal of National Medical Association , 92 : 492 – 500 .
  • Loewenstein , GF , Weber , EU , Hsee , CK and Welch , N . 2001 . Risk as feelings . Psychological Bulletin , 127 : 267 – 286 .
  • Moore , DA . 2007 . Not so above average after all: When people believe they are worse than average and its implication for theories of bias in social comparison . Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes , 102 : 42 – 58 .
  • Moore , DA and Klein , WMP . Use of absolute and comparative performance feedback in absolute and comparative judgments and decisions. . Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes , (in press)
  • Olson , JM , Goffin , RD and Haynes , GA . 2007 . Relative versus absolute measures of explicit attitudes: Implications for predicting diverse attitude-relevant criteria . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 93 : 907 – 926 .
  • Otten , W and Van der Pligt , J . 1996 . Context effects in the measurement of comparative optimism in probability judgments . Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology , 15 : 80 – 101 .
  • Price , PC , Pentecost , HC and Voth , RM . 2002 . Perceived event frequency and the optimistic bias: Evidence for a two-process model of personal risk judgments . Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , 38 : 242 – 252 .
  • Price , PC , Smith , AS and Lench , HC . 2006 . The effect of target group size on risk judgments and comparative optimism: the more, the riskier . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 90 : 382 – 398 .
  • Schwarz , N . 1999 . Self-reports: How the questions shape the answers . American Psychologist , 54 : 93 – 105 .
  • Suls , J and Wheeler , L , eds. 2000 . “ Handbook of social comparison: Theory and research. ” . New York : Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers .
  • Weinstein , ND . 1988 . The precaution adoption process . Health Psychology , 7 : 355 – 386 .
  • Weinstein , ND and Nicolich , M . 1993 . Correct and incorrect interpretations of correlations between risk perceptions and risk behaviors . Health Psychology , 12 : 235 – 245 .
  • Windschitl , PD , Rose , JP , Stalkfleet , M and Smith , AS . Are people excessive or judicious in their egocentrism? A modeling approach to understanding bias and accuracy in people's optimism. . Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , (in press)
  • Windschitl , PD and Wells , G . 1996 . Measuring psychological uncertainty: Verbal vs. numeric methods . Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied , 2 : 343 – 364 .
  • Zajac , LE , Klein , WM and McCaul , KD . 2006 . Absolute and comparative risk perceptions as predictors of cancer worry: Moderating effects of gender and psychological distress . Journal of Health Communication , 11 : 37 – 49 .

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.