ArticleHuman nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.)2014
Perceived extrinsic mortality risk and reported effort in looking after health: testing a behavioral ecological prediction.
Article in Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.), 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 28 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
28 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The Relationship Between Perceived Uncontrollable Mortality Risk and Health Effort: Replication, Secondary Analysis, and Mini Meta-analysis.Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Modeling the dynamics of access to healthy food. The case of Cleveland, Ohio.SSM - population health · 2026Article
- The gut as a central hub for multi-organ crosstalk in aging.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2026Review
- Correlates of annual health check-up among community-dwelling persons 60 years and older: Longitudinal national evidence from the health, aging, and retirement in Thailand study, 2015-2022.Preventive medicine reports · 2025Article
- Poverty is associated with both risk avoidance and risk taking: empirical evidence for the desperation threshold model from the UK and France.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Life-history strategy, adverse environment, and justification of life-ending decisions.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- The Uncontrollable Mortality Risk Hypothesis: Theoretical foundations and implications for public health.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2024Article
- Perceptions of control over different causes of death and the accuracy of risk estimations.Zeitschrift fur Gesundheitswissenschaften = Journal of public health · 2023Article
- Gut Microbiota and Aging: Traditional Chinese Medicine and Modern Medicine.Clinical interventions in aging · 2023Review
- COVID-19: the relationship between perceptions of risk and behaviours during lockdown.Zeitschrift fur Gesundheitswissenschaften = Journal of public health · 2023Article
- Food insecurity, diet and mental distress among resource insecure students during COVID-19.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2023Article
- Does higher perceived risk of morbidity and mortality decrease risk-taking?Royal Society open science · 2022Article
- Predicting attitudes towards screening for neurodegenerative diseases using OCT and artificial intelligence: Findings from a literature review.Journal of public health research · 2022Article
- Disease Prevalence and Fatality, Life History Strategies, and Behavioral Control of the COVID Pandemic.Evolutionary psychological science · 2022Article
- A qualitative study of perceptions of control over potential causes of death and the sources of information that inform perceptions of risk.Health psychology and behavioral medicine · 2022Article
- Traumatic events and mental health: The amplifying effects of pre-trauma systemic inflammation.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2021Article
- Subjective Socioeconomic Status, Cognitive Abilities, and Personal Control: Associations With Health Behaviours.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Extrinsic and Existential Mortality Risk in Reproductive Decision-Making: Examining the Effects of COVID-19 Experience and Climate Change Beliefs.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Childhood environmental adversity is not linked to lower levels of cooperative behaviour in economic games.Evolutionary human sciences · 2021Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Socioeconomic gradients in health behavior are pervasive and well documented. Yet, there is little consensus on their causes. Behavioral ecological theory predicts that, if people of lower socioeconomic position (SEP) perceive greater personal extrinsic mortality risk than those of higher SEP, they should disinvest in their future health. We surveyed North American adults for reported effort in looking after health, perceived extrinsic and intrinsic mortality risks, and measures of SEP. We examined the relationships between these variables and found that lower subjective SEP predicted lower reported health effort. Lower subjective SEP was also associated with higher perceived extrinsic mortality risk, which in turn predicted lower reported health effort. The effect of subjective SEP on reported health effort was completely mediated by perceived extrinsic mortality risk. Our findings indicate that perceived extrinsic mortality risk may be a key factor underlying SEP gradients in motivation to invest in future health.
Indexed as
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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.