Decision Theories in Recuperative Health Decisions: The Role of Intrinsic Self-Reference

University Of Houston, Houston TX

Investigators

Abstract

Medical patients often face treatment options that involve an element of uncertainty or risk. When processing information, patients in need of recuperative treatment are likely to be in a heightened emotional, cognitive, motivational, and attentional state. Our central proposition is that these features of recuperative treatment decisions are likely to influence psychological mechanisms that are known to affect how people process risk information. In this research we examine how patients process risk information and test the extent to which current knowledge about risk processing extends to the context of recuperative treatment decisions. Preliminary findings indicate that current knowledge in the decision science literature only partially translates to contexts such as these, where the decision maker is likely to process information in an intrinsically self-referential manner. Our focus is on four distinct but related topics. The first is how patients respond to logically equivalent risk information presented in semantically different frames. The second explores how patients choose between treatment options that vary in the risk associated with therapeutic benefits versus side effects. The third is how patients make decisions to choose versus reject treatment options that vary on the extremity of the advantages and disadvantages they offer. The fourth topic examines how patients determine their individual risk of further complications of their health condition. Results from the proposed research will enhance our understanding of how people process risk information in extremely self-referent decision contexts. The results should also be useful to medical practitioners in communicating risk information to their patients.