ArticleJournal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA2005
Avoiding versus seeking: the relationship of information seeking to avoidance, blunting, coping, dissonance, and related concepts.
Article in Journal of the Medical Library Association : JMLA, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 132 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
132 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Prevalence and predictors of medical information avoidance: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2025Pooled it
- How risk is perceived, constructed and interpreted by clients in clinical genetics, and the effects on decision making: systematic review.Journal of genetic counseling · 2008Pooled it
- Understanding the Impact of Communicating Uncertainty About COVID-19 in the News: Randomized Between-Subjects Factorial Experiment.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Trial
- What moves young people? Applying the risk perception attitude framework to physical activity behavior and cardiometabolic risk.Translational behavioral medicine · 2022Trial
- Trust in expert versus lay comments in online articles about spanking and car seat safety.Journal of family psychology : JFP : journal of the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association (Division 43) · 2021Trial
- Just a Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Messages Go Down: Using Stories and Vicarious Self-Affirmation to Reduce e-Cigarette Use.Health communication · 2019Trial
- Values clarification in a decision aid about fertility preservation: does it add to information provision?BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2014Trial
- Effects of web-based instruction and patient preferences on patient-reported outcomes and learning for women with advanced ovarian cancer: A randomized controlled trial.Journal of psychosocial oncologyTrial
- Cancer information seeking and awareness of multi-cancer detection tests among U.S. adults: a cross-sectional study.Cancer causes & control : CCC · 2026Article
- How Information-Seeking Reduces Cancer Fatalism: A Comparison of the Mediating Role of Risk Perception in Young and Older Adults.Journal of cancer education : the official journal of the American Association for Cancer Education · 2026Article
- Attitudinal and Behavioral Inference in Social Influence: A Process Model of Direct and Indirect Judgments and Decisions.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Distinct motivational factors shape news-seeking in young adults.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The Value of Implicitness: An Empirical Ethics Analysis of Indonesian Everyday Family Involvement in a Palliative Care Setting.Asian bioethics review · 2026Article
- Barriers and Enablers of Electronic Health Literacy in Colorectal Cancer Patients: A Phenomenological Study.Patient preference and adherence · 2026Article
- A good creator should be a wise listener: how user feedback impacts the performance of user-generated videos.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Determinants of health information seeking behavior among people at risk of statelessness in Ghana.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Addressing Altered Anticipation as a Transdiagnostic Target Through Computational Psychiatry.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2025Review
- Information seeking and the expected utility of information about COVID-19 can be associated with uncertainty and related attitudes.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Mindfulness Intervention for Health Information Avoidance in Older Adults: Mixed Methods Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2025Article
- Factors influencing adoption intentions to use AIGC for health information: findings from SEM and fsQCA.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
72 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
questionHow have theorists and empirical researchers treated the human tendency to avoid discomforting information? DATA SOURCES: A historical review (1890-2004) of theory literature in communication and information studies, coupled with searches of recent studies on uptake of genetic testing and on coping strategies of cancer patients, was performed. STUDY SELECTION: The authors' review of the recent literature included searches of the MEDLINE, PsychInfo, and CINAHL databases between 1992 and summer of 2004 and selective, manual searches of earlier literature. Search strategies included the following subject headings and key words: MeSH headings: Genetic Screening/psychology, Decision Making, Neoplasms/diagnosis/genetics/psychology; CINAHL headings: Genetic Screening, Genetic Counseling, Anxiety, Decision Making, Decision Making/Patient; additional key words: avoidance, worry, monitoring, blunting, cancer. The "Related Articles" function in MEDLINE was used to perform additional "citation pearl" searching. MAIN
resultsThe assumption that individuals actively seek information underlies much of psychological theory and communication practice, as well as most models of the information-seeking process. However, much research has also noted that sometimes people avoid information, if paying attention to it will cause mental discomfort or dissonance. Cancer information in general and genetic screening for cancer in particular are discussed as examples to illustrate this pattern.
conclusionThat some patients avoid knowledge of imminent disease makes avoidance behavior an important area for social and psychological research, particularly with regard to genetic testing.
Indexed as
Identifiers
16059425PMC1175801What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.