Choosing a physician depends on how you want to feel : the role of ideal affect in health-related decision making
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Choosing the right physician has important consequences for patient satisfaction and health outcomes. How do people decide which physician to choose? Although research has demonstrated that how people actually feel (their "actual affect") influences their health care preferences, we predicted that how people ideally want to feel (their "ideal affect") would play an even more important role. Consistent with this prediction, the more college students (Study 1) and community adults (Study 2) wanted to feel high arousal positive states on average ([ideal HAP]; e.g., excited), the more likely they were to choose a HAP-focused (vs. low arousal positive [e.g., calm] or LAP-focused) physician. Experimentally increasing the value of HAP also increased participants' choice of a HAP (vs. LAP) physician (Study 3). Wanting to feel low arousal positive states (ideal LAP) did not predict physician choice until participants were given a neutral (non-emotional) option: under these conditions, ideal LAP predicted choice of the LAP physician, and ideal HAP predicted choice of the HAP physician (Study 4). Across studies 2-4, the association between ideal affect and choice was mediated by perceived physician trustworthiness. When community adults were assigned to either a HAP or LAP virtual physician (Study 5), ideal HAP predicted greater self-reported adherence to the HAP physician's recommendations, and ideal LAP predicted greater self-reported adherence to the LAP physician's recommendations. Across all five studies, actual affect did not predict preferences for physicians. These findings suggest that people choose and listen to physicians who express the affective states that they ideally want to feel, in part because they trust those physicians more. Together, these studies demonstrate the importance of ideal affect in health-related decision making.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2013 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Sims, Tamara |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Psychology. |
| Primary advisor | Tsai, Jeanne Ling |
| Thesis advisor | Tsai, Jeanne Ling |
| Thesis advisor | Carstensen, Laura L |
| Thesis advisor | Thomas, Ewart A. C |
| Advisor | Carstensen, Laura L |
| Advisor | Thomas, Ewart A. C |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Tamara Sims. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Psychology. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2013. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2013 by Tamara Lynn Sims
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