ArticleJournal of behavioral medicine2011
Correlates of unrealistic risk beliefs in a nationally representative sample.
Article in Journal of behavioral medicine, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 3 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.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Personalizing cancer risk: a systematic review of risk communication strategies.Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology · 2026Pooled it
- Public and health professional epidemic risk perceptions in countries that are highly vulnerable to epidemics: a systematic review.Infectious diseases of poverty · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Trial
- Prevalence and Predictors of Physician-Patient Discordance in Prognostic Perceptions in Advanced Cancer.The oncologist · 2023Article
- Dismissing "Don't Know" Responses to Perceived Risk Survey Items Threatens the Validity of Theoretical and Empirical Behavior-Change Research.Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2022Article
- Accuracy of Perceived Breast Cancer Risk in Black and White Women with an Elevated Risk.Ethnicity & disease · 2022Article
- Low Subjective Cardiovascular Disease Risk Perceptions among Hypertensive Patients in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.Integrated blood pressure control · 2022Article
- Temporal aspects of unrealistic optimism and robustness of this bias: A longitudinal study in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.PloS one · 2022Article
- Are People Optimistically Biased about the Risk of COVID-19 Infection? Lessons from the First Wave of the Pandemic in Europe.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- "It Won't Happen to Us": Unrealistic Optimism Affects COVID-19 Risk Assessments and Attitudes Regarding Protective Behaviour.Journal of applied research in memory and cognition · 2021Article
- Knowledge of a cancer diagnosis is a protective factor for the survival of patients with breast cancer: a retrospective cohort study.BMC cancer · 2021Article
- Markers of disease severity and positive family history are associated to significant risk perception in rheumatoid arthritis, while compliance with therapy is not: a cross-sectional study in 415 Mexican outpatients.Arthritis research & therapy · 2021Article
- Association between unrealistic comparative optimism and self-management in individuals with type 2 diabetes: Results from a cross-sectional, population-based study.Health science reports · 2020Article
- Article
- The Lived Experience of Crossing the Road When You Have Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD): The Perspectives of Parents of Children With DCD and Adults With DCD.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Article
- Genetic counseling, genetic testing, and risk perceptions for breast and colorectal cancer: Results from the 2015 National Health Interview Survey.Preventive medicine · 2019Article
- Validation of a risk perception questionnaire developed for patients with rheumatoid arthritis.PloS one · 2019Article
- Low Health Literacy and Health Information Avoidance but Not Satisficing Help Explain "Don't Know" Responses to Questions Assessing Perceived Risk.Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making · 2018Article
- Measuring perceptions related to e-cigarettes: Important principles and next steps to enhance study validity.Addictive behaviors · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Unrealistically optimistic or pessimistic risk perceptions may be associated with maladaptive health behaviors. This study characterized factors associated with unrealistic optimism (UO) and unrealistic pessimism (UP) about breast cancer. Data from the 2005 National Health Interview Survey were analyzed (N = 14,426 women). After accounting for objective risk status, many (43.8%) women displayed UO, 12.3% displayed UP, 34.5% had accurate risk perceptions (their perceived risk matched their calculated risk), and 9.5% indicated "don't know/no response." Multivariate multinomial logistic regression indicated that UO was associated with higher education and never smoking. UP was associated with lower education, lower income, being non-Hispanic Black, having ≥3 comorbidities, current smoking, and being overweight. UO was more likely to emerge in younger and older than in middle-aged individuals. UO and UP are associated with different demographic, health, and behavioral characteristics. Population segments that are already vulnerable to negative health outcomes displayed more UP than less vulnerable populations.
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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.