Countering demand for ineffective health remedies: Do consumers respond to risks, lack of benefits, or both?

We tested whether targeting the illusion of causality and/or misperceptions about health risks had the potential to reduce consumer demand for an ineffective health remedy (multivitamin supplements). We adopted a 2 (contingency information: no/yes) × 2 (fear appeal: no/yes) factorial design, with wi...

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Publicado en:Psychology & Health Vol. 36; no. 5; pp. 593 - 612
Autores principales: MacFarlane, Douglas, Hurlstone, Mark J., Ecker, Ullrich K. H.
Formato: research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd May2021
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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      dt: May2021
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      pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd
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        10.1080/08870446.2020.1774056
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        atl: Countering demand for ineffective health remedies: Do consumers respond to risks, lack of benefits, or both?
      aug:
        au:
          MacFarlane, Douglas
          Hurlstone, Mark J.
          Ecker, Ullrich K. H.
        affil: School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
      sug:
        subj:
          Illusions
          Causal Attribution
          Consumer Attitudes
          Attitude to Risk
          Attitude to Health
          Vitamins
          Dietary Supplements
          Human
          Factorial Design
          Placebos
          Fear
          Clinical Trials
          Internet
          Descriptive Statistics
          Health Psychology
          Communication
          Risk Assessment
          Alternative Therapies
      ab: We tested whether targeting the illusion of causality and/or misperceptions about health risks had the potential to reduce consumer demand for an ineffective health remedy (multivitamin supplements). We adopted a 2 (contingency information: no/yes) × 2 (fear appeal: no/yes) factorial design, with willingness-to-pay as the dependent variable. The contingency information specified, in table format, the number of people reporting a benefit vs. no benefit from both multivitamins and placebo, plus a causal explanation for lack of efficacy over placebo. The fear appeal involved a summary of clinical-trial results that indicated multivitamins can cause health harms. The control condition received only irrelevant information. Experimental auctions measured people's willingness-to-pay for multivitamins. Experiment 1 (N = 260) elicited hypothetical willingness-to-pay online. Experiment 2 (N = 207) elicited incentivised willingness-to-pay in the laboratory. Compared to a control group, we found independent effects of contingency information (-22%) and the fear appeal (-32%) on willingness-to-pay. The combination of both interventions had the greatest impact (-50%) on willingness-to-pay. We found evidence that consumer choices are influenced by both perceptions of efficacy and risk. The combination of both elements can provide additive effects that appear superior to either approach alone.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        research
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      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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