Information Avoidance in Genetic Health: Perceptions, Norms, and Preferences
From the abstract:
The decision to avoid or ignore potentially useful information is common and often costly in health and genetics. Little is known, however, about how people evaluate those who choose to avoid or learn health information about themselves. Across four preregistered studies, we find that lay observers view those who avoid a genetic health result as less competent and moral, with less empathy and sympathy, and as less normative than those who choose to learn this information. These negative evaluations were less severe, but still present, when the health information was described as medically nonactionable, and depended little on the true presence or absence of a harmful gene. These findings replicated for actionable genetic health results in a large sample of clinicians who interact and discuss medical tests with patients. We suggest that avoiding information about oneself may have negative consequences for social interaction, the patient-provider relationship, and health.