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