Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
11.2.1.6
Representativeness Heuristic and Self-Positivity Bias
The representativeness heuristic suggests that consumers make predictions about future
outcomes based on the target's similarity to an exemplar, a schema, or a category
(Tversky and Kahneman 1974 ). In the case of processing risk information (the latter
type), people assess the similarity of the information to a mental representation, and the
more similar the information is to the representation, the higher the perceived chance
of an event's occurrence (e.g., contracting a disease). For instance, Menon et al. ( 2002 )
found that cues that make perceptions of contracting a disease more likely (e.g., when
frequent, rather than infrequent, behaviors are presented) increased perceptions of per-
sonal risk, and actually reduced the self-positivity bias—in which people perceive
themselves as less at risk than another. Notably, presentation of infrequent behavior, vs.
no risk behavior, has worse effects in terms of risk estimates and behavioral intentions
since the chances of contracting a disease seemed remote. Moreover, as the number of
frequent risk behaviors presented increased, the self-positivity bias decreased (a longer
list translates into more concern and intentions to get tested); however, as the number
of infrequent risk behaviors presented increased, the self-positivity bias also increased.
In the latter case, people reported higher intentions to get tested when they were pre-
sented with a short, vs. long, enumeration. Interestingly, they also found evidence of
another bias—namely that people believe that infrequent behaviors cause a disease
more than frequent ones do. Since both the type and the number of cues act as signals
of representativeness, advertisement of vaccinations, for instance, must take account
these factors in addition to order effects.
11.2.1.7
Vividness and the Simulation Heuristic
Research has found evidence of the simulation heuristic (Tversky and Kahneman
1974 ), where simulating (e.g., imagining/visualizing) an event translates into per-
ceptions of greater likelihood that it will ensue. Johnson et al. ( 1993 ) demonstrated
that people are willing to pay more for airplane travel insurance coverage against
death from a terrorist attack than for coverage against death from “all possible
causes”—which inherently includes terrorist acts—since the former is much more
vivid and easily imagined. Other health-specifi c research has also suggested that
vivid imagery is more effective in conveying warnings (Hendrickx et al. 1989 ;
Hammond et al. 2004 ).
Although playing up risk, such as adverse side effects, in advertisements is hardly a
goal of pharmaceutical marketers, presenting the risk of not consuming a pharmaceuti-
cal product (e.g., continuing insomnia, erectile dysfunction) is common. For example,
consumers who are encouraged to imagine certain symptoms when receiving product
information are more likely to feel susceptible to feeling them, and thus more likely to
use the medication. Similarly, rather than merely enumerating product benefi ts,
pharmaceutical marketers may benefi t from encouraging message recipients to envision
feeling the products' effects.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search