AN AVERAGING MODEL FOR THE INTEGRATION OF “DREAD” AND PROBABILITY IN SELF-MEDICATION PROPENSITY

Authors

  • Miguel Oliveira
  • Armando Oliveira

Abstract

Integration of affective (dread) and probability information associated with medical drugs side-effects was studied through an integration task, with numerical judgments of intake propensity as a response (0-20 rating scale). A “dread†factor (manipulated through severity of reported side effects) and a probability factor, with three levels each, were fully crossed in a factorial within-subjects design. Stimuli consisted of vignettes embodying all factor level’s combinations, with three distinct instances (replications) for each condition. An additive integration pattern corresponding to equal-weighting averaging was found. Functional measurement of factor weights, on a ratio scale, revealed greater importance (informativeness) of the dread factor to the overall judgment.

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