Funded Research

Title: A social cognitive model for processing health risk information: Examining anthrax fears.

Funding Source: This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0204846. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Overview

Recently, individuals have become keenly aware of external threats to their health and personal safety. Perhaps the most extensively reported threat is that of biochemical terrorism involving anthrax. Because all individuals are at some risk to this health threat over which they have little control, the public’s temporary elevated concern represents a unique and particularly salient context within which to study the cognitive antecedents and consequences of a low probability, high consequence health threat. This research will extend the existing literature examining the self-regulation of health threatening information by interrelating: (1) stable individual differences in generalized health vulnerability beliefs, and (2) perceived control over the health threat. The cognitive consequences of a health threat will be quantified using self-report assessments of perceived risk, a perceptual index of attention to threat-relevant stimuli, and an index of health goal behavior.

Lecci, L., & Cohen, D. J. (2007). Altered processing of health threat words as a function of hypochondriacal tendencies and experimentally manipulated control beliefs. Cognition and Emotion, 21, 211-224.

Portions of the above-described project were presented in a Congressional Briefing to the House Science Committee in June of 2002. A copy of that presentation (in power point) is available by clicking here: Congressional_talk_2002.ppt

See also APA's coverage of the Congressional briefing at:

http://www.decadeofbehavior.org/policyseminars/Terrorism/terrorism_speakers.html

http://www.apa.org/monitor/dec02/ppup.html

For a broader discussion of research examining reactions to terrorism see:

 http://www.apa.org/monitor/sep02/america.html

http://12.42.224.168/HealthNews/reuters/NewsStory0618200230.htm