Purpose: Previous research (e.g. Klein, Windschitl, Lipkus, Fagerlin) has shown that providing people with comparative risk information (i.e., whether their risk is above or below average) can change risk perceptions and subsequent health behaviors. As part of a larger study on contextual risk information, we explored whether comparative risk status would also affect people’s memory of the statistics themselves.
Method: 884 adults ages 30-60 completed an Internet-administered survey vignette about a hypothetical medication to prevent colon cancer. All participants received information about their own 20-year risk (4%) and the average person’s risk, but were randomized to have the average risk be higher (8%) or lower (2%) than their own. In addition, half of participants were explicitly told that they were at “high risk” or “low risk” of developing colon cancer while the remainder just received the numerical risk information. The primary outcome measure for this analysis was recall of (a) one’s own risk and (b) the risk reduction of the hypothetical medication, each coded as correct or incorrect.
Results: Participants’ whose personal risk was said to be higher than the provided average risk statistic were significantly more likely to accurately recall both their own risk (67% vs. 49%, p<0.001) and the absolute risk reduction provided by the medication (65% vs. 45%, p<0.001) than participants whose own risk was below average. Among participants who were at higher than average risk, being explicitly told that they were at “high risk” decreased recall of the personal risk statistic (62% vs. 71%, p=0.03). Such “high/low risk” statements were not significantly associated with recall of the risk reduction.
Conclusions: Recall of a personal risk statistic was significantly better if it represented a comparatively high risk versus a comparatively low risk, suggesting that learning that one is above average may lead to more detailed cognitive processing. This effect is weaker when people were explicitly told that their risk was “high.” Our findings suggest that providing comparative risk information does not simply change people’s emotional and cognitive evaluations of personal risk information, but also influences their ability to remember such statistics in the first place.
Candidate for the Lee B. Lusted Student Prize Competition