Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
Ann Behav Med. 2019 Aug 29;53(10):896-908. doi: 10.1093/abm/kay098.
Although there is growing theoretical and empirical support for the proposition that media exposure to conflicting health information negatively influences public understanding and behavior, few studies have causally linked exposure to conflict with undesirable outcomes. Such outcomes might be particularly likely in the context of mammography, given widespread media attention to conflicting recommendations about the age at and frequency with which average-risk women should be screened for breast cancer.
The current study tests whether exposure to conflicting information about mammography negatively influences women's affective and cognitive responses and examines whether effects vary by socioeconomic position.
We conducted an online survey experiment in 2016 with a population-based sample of U.S. women aged 35-55 (N = 1,474). Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions that differed in the level of conflict about mammography presented in a news story (no, low, medium, or high conflict), stratifying by poverty level.
Greater exposure to conflict increased women's negative emotional responses to the story they read, their confusion about and backlash toward cancer prevention recommendations and research, and their ambivalence about mammography and other types of cancer screening, though ambivalence leveled off at high levels of exposure. There was little evidence that effects varied across socioeconomic position.
Findings add to the growing evidence base documenting undesirable outcomes of exposure to conflicting health information. Future research should examine whether the negative affective and cognitive responses observed translate into behavior, which could have implications for both health campaigns and patient-provider communication.
尽管越来越多的理论和实证研究支持这样一种观点，即媒体接触相互矛盾的健康信息会对公众的理解和行为产生负面影响，但很少有研究将接触冲突与不良后果联系起来。在乳房 X 光检查的背景下，这种后果可能尤其可能发生，因为媒体广泛关注有关普通风险女性进行乳腺癌筛查的年龄和频率的相互矛盾的建议。
本研究检验了接触有关乳房 X 光检查的相互矛盾的信息是否会对女性的情感和认知反应产生负面影响，并研究了这些影响是否因社会经济地位而异。
我们于 2016 年进行了一项基于人群的美国 35-55 岁女性（N=1474）的在线调查实验。参与者被随机分配到四种不同的条件之一，这些条件在新闻报道中呈现的乳房 X 光检查的冲突程度不同（无、低、中、高冲突），并按贫困水平分层。
更多地接触冲突会增加女性对阅读的故事的负面情绪反应，她们对癌症预防建议和研究的困惑和抵制，以及对乳房 X 光检查和其他类型的癌症筛查的矛盾态度，但在高接触水平下，矛盾态度趋于平稳。几乎没有证据表明这些影响因社会经济地位而异。
这些发现增加了越来越多的证据，证明接触相互矛盾的健康信息会产生不良后果。未来的研究应该研究观察到的负面情感和认知反应是否转化为行为，这可能对健康运动和医患沟通都有影响。
