Changing perception of average person's risk does not suffice to change perception of comparative risk Aucote, Helen M. and Gold, Ron S. 2008, Changing perception of average person's risk does not suffice to change perception of comparative risk, Psychology, health & medicine, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 461-470, doi: 10.1080/13548500701694227. Attached Files Name Description MIMEType Size Downloads Title Changing perception of average person's risk does not suffice to change perception of comparative risk Author(s) Aucote, Helen M. Gold, Ron S. Journal name Psychology, health & medicine Volume number 13 Issue number 4 Start page 461 End page 470 Total pages 10 Publisher Routledge Place of publication Abingdon, England Publication date 2008-08 ISSN 1354-8506 Keyword(s) unrealistic optimism direct-estimates self-estimates other-estimates Summary The direct method of assessing “unrealistic optimism” employs a question of the form, “Compared with the average person, what is the chance that event X will occur to you?” It has been proposed that when individuals construct their responses to this question (direct-estimates) they focus much more strongly on estimates of their own risk (self-estimates) than on estimates of the average person's risk (other-estimates). A challenge to this proposal comes from findings that interventions that alter other-estimates also change direct-estimates. Employing a novel intervention technique, we tested the possibility that such interventions may indirectly also change self-estimates and that this is what accounts for their effect on direct-estimates. Study 1 (n = 58) showed that an intervention which was designed to (and did) affect other-estimates also affected self-estimates, while Study 2 (n = 101) showed that it affected direct-estimates. Study 3 (n = 79) confirmed that we could modify the intervention so as to maintain the effect on other-estimates, but eliminate that on self-estimates. Study 4 (n = 112) demonstrated that when this was done, there was no longer any effect on direct-estimates. The findings are consistent with the proposal that direct-estimates are constructed largely just out of self-estimates. Implications for heath education programs are discussed. Language eng DOI 10.1080/13548500701694227 Field of Research 170106 Health, Clinical and Counselling Psychology Socio Economic Objective 970117 Expanding Knowledge in Psychology and Cognitive Sciences HERDC Research category C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal Copyright notice ©2008, Routledge Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30017425 Document type: Journal Article Collections: Faculty of Health School of Psychology Related Links Link Description Connect to published version (restricted access) Go to link with your DU access privileges     Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Versions Version Filter Type Fri, 14 Aug 2009, 13:53:11 EST Thu, 17 Dec 2009, 16:02:20 EST Thu, 17 Dec 2009, 16:02:59 EST Mon, 16 Jun 2014, 11:50:39 EST Tue, 08 Jul 2014, 15:46:36 EST Tue, 08 Jul 2014, 15:47:24 EST Fri, 26 Sep 2014, 13:13:31 EST Filtered Full Citation counts:   Cited 0 times in TR Web of Science Cited 3 times in Scopus Search Google Scholar Access Statistics: 457 Abstract Views, 2 File Downloads  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Fri, 14 Aug 2009, 13:53:11 EST