Reducing demand for ineffective health remedies: overcoming the illusion of causality.

Objective: We tested a novel intervention for reducing demand for ineffective health remedies. The intervention aimed to empower participants to overcome the illusion of causality, which otherwise drives erroneous perceptions regarding remedy efficacy. Design: A laboratory experiment adopted a betwe...

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Publicado en:Psychology & Health Vol. 33; no. 12; pp. 1472 - 1490
Autores principales: MacFarlane, Douglas, Hurlstone, Mark J., Ecker, Ullrich K. H.
Formato: research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd Dec2018
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: Dec2018
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      pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd
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        10.1080/08870446.2018.1508685
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        atl: Reducing demand for ineffective health remedies: overcoming the illusion of causality.
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          MacFarlane, Douglas
          Hurlstone, Mark J.
          Ecker, Ullrich K. H.
        affil: School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
      sug:
        subj:
          Causality
          Attitude to Health
          Empowerment
          Consumer Attitudes
          Human
          Vitamins
          Dietary Supplements
          Costs and Cost Analysis
          Experimental Studies
      ab: Objective: We tested a novel intervention for reducing demand for ineffective health remedies. The intervention aimed to empower participants to overcome the illusion of causality, which otherwise drives erroneous perceptions regarding remedy efficacy. Design: A laboratory experiment adopted a between-participants design with six conditions that varied the amount of information available to participants (N = 245). The control condition received a basic refutation of multivitamin efficacy, whereas the principal intervention condition received a full contingency table specifying the number of people reporting a benefit vs. no benefit from both the product and placebo, plus an alternate causal explanation for inefficacy over placebo. Main outcome measures: We measured participants' willingness to pay (WTP) for multivitamin products using two incentivized experimental auctions. General attitudes towards health supplements were assessed as a moderator of WTP. We tested generalisation using ratings of the importance of clinical-trial results for making future health purchases. Results: Our principal intervention significantly reduced participants' WTP for multivitamins (by 23%) and increased their recognition of the importance of clinical-trial results. Conclusion: We found evidence that communicating a simplified full-contingency table and an alternate causal explanation may help reduce demand for ineffective health remedies by countering the illusion of causality.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
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      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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