University of Konstanz, Germany.
Appl Psychol Health Well Being. 2016 Nov;8(3):364-385. doi: 10.1111/aphw.12076. Epub 2016 Jul 14.
Personalised health-risk assessment is one of the most common components of health promotion programs. Previous research on responses to health risk feedback has commonly focused on the reception of bad news (high-risk feedback). The reception of low-risk feedback has been comparably neglected since it is assumed that good news is reassuring and readily received. However, field studies suggest mixed responses to low-risk health feedback. Accordingly, we examine whether pre-feedback risk expectancies can mitigate the reassuring effects of good news.
In two studies (N = 187, N = 565), after assessing pre-feedback risk expectancies, participants received low-risk personalised feedback about their own risk of developing (the fictitious) Tucson Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (TCFS). Study 2 also included peer TCFS risk status feedback. Afterwards, self- and peer-related risk perception for TCFS was assessed.
In both studies, participants who expected to be at high risk but received good news (unexpected low-risk feedback) showed absolute lack of reassurance. Specifically, they felt at significantly greater TCFS risk than participants who received expected good news. Moreover, the unexpected low-risk group even believed that their risk was as high as (Study 1) or higher (Study 2) than that of their peers (comparative lack of reassurance).
Results support the notion that high pre-feedback risk expectancies can mitigate absolute and comparative reassuring effects of good news.
个性化健康风险评估是健康促进计划中最常见的组成部分之一。之前关于健康风险反馈反应的研究通常集中在接收坏消息（高风险反馈）上。由于人们认为好消息是令人安心的，很容易被接受，因此相对而言，对低风险反馈的接收被忽视了。然而，实地研究表明，对低风险健康反馈的反应不一。因此，我们研究了预先反馈风险预期是否可以减轻好消息的安心作用。
在两项研究（N=187，N=565）中，在评估预先反馈风险预期之后，参与者收到了有关他们自身患（虚构的）图森慢性疲劳综合征（TCFS）风险的低风险个性化反馈。研究 2 还包括同伴 TCFS 风险状况反馈。之后，评估了自我和同伴对 TCFS 的风险感知。
在两项研究中，预期风险高但收到好消息（意外的低风险反馈）的参与者表现出绝对缺乏安心。具体来说，他们感到 TCFS 风险明显高于收到预期好消息的参与者。此外，意外低风险组甚至认为他们的风险与（研究 1）或高于（研究 2）他们的同龄人一样高（相对缺乏安心）。
结果支持这样一种观点，即高预先反馈风险预期可以减轻好消息的绝对和相对安心作用。
