Reducing Health-Information Avoidance Through Contemplation

Despite the importance of learning about one’s health, people sometimes opt to remain ignorant. In three studies, we investigated whether prompting people to contemplate their reasons for seeking or avoiding information would reduce avoidance of personal health information. In Study 1, people were more likely to opt to learn their risk for type 2 diabetes if they had completed a motives questionnaire prior to making their decision than if they had not. In Study 2, people were more likely to opt to learn their risk for cardiovascular disease if they had first listed and rated reasons for seeking or avoiding the information than if they had not. Study 3 replicated Study 2 but also showed that contemplating reasons for avoiding versus seeking reduced avoidance of personal-risk information only when the risk condition was treatable.