ArticlePerspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science2022
Dismissing "Don't Know" Responses to Perceived Risk Survey Items Threatens the Validity of Theoretical and Empirical Behavior-Change Research.
Article in Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed.
- Exploring the role of cancer fatalism and engagement with skin cancer genetic information in diverse primary care patients.Psycho-oncology · 2024Trial
- Effects of cigarette package colors and warning labels on marlboro smokers' risk beliefs, product appraisals, and smoking behavior: a randomized trial.BMC public health · 2023Trial
- Exploring demographic and organisational variations in patient safety culture: a cross-sectional, multicentre study in operating theatres of six Norwegian hospitals.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Article
- Multi-cohort evaluation of "Don't know" responders to self-report oral health questions: Implications for etiologic research.Journal of periodontology · 2026Observational
- Patient safety culture of chiropractors and variables predictive of overall patient safety rating: Response to an adapted version of the Survey on Patient Safety Culture Medical Office Survey.Journal of chiropractic medicine · 2026Article
- Attitudes and beliefs regarding COVID-19 and COVID-19 Omicron booster vaccine among adults in the vaccine safety datalink, 2022-2023.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2025Article
- Responses to e-cigarette nicotine source descriptors: results from a randomised experiment.Tobacco control · 2025Article
- Examining opioid agonist treatment (OAT) site operations and early signals of change in the first year of British Columbia's drug decriminalization policy: Insights from a provincial survey.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2025Article
- Characterizing changes to harm reduction site operations in British Columbia following the implementation of the decriminalization of drugs: Findings from a provincial survey.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Identification of needs of integrated approaches of occupational health and safety and health promotion.Health promotion perspectives · 2025Article
- Getting Cancer Is "Just Bad Luck": Exploring Bereaved Emerging and Young Adults' Cancer Risk Uncertainty After Caring for a Parent With Advanced Cancer.Psycho-oncology · 2025Article
- Factors associated with unmet supportive care needs among adult cancer survivors in South Korea: a cross-sectional survey.Journal of cancer survivorship : research and practice · 2025Article
- Article
- Accuracy of self-reported height, weight, and waist circumference in poor, rural areas of China.PeerJ · 2024Article
- Health warning labels on heated tobacco products and their impact on use intentions and risk perceptions: a cross-sectional study of adult tobacco users in the US and Israel.Israel journal of health policy research · 2023Article
- Assessing attitudes towards pediatric research participation across diverse populations: Psychometric properties of a novel tool.Contemporary clinical trials · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Since the middle of the 20th century, perceptions of risk have been critical to understanding engagement in volitional behavior change. However, theoretical and empirical risk perception research seldom considers the possibility that risk perceptions do not simply exist: They must be formed. Thus, some people may not have formulated a perception of risk for a hazard at the time a researcher asks them, or they may not be confident in the extent to which their perception matches reality. We describe a decade-long research program that investigates the possibility that some people may genuinely not know their risk of even well-publicized hazards. We demonstrate that indications of not knowing (i.e., "don't know" responses) are prevalent in the U.S. population, are systematically more likely to occur among marginalized sociodemographic groups, and are associated with less engagement in protective health behaviors. "Don't know" responses are likely indications of genuinely limited knowledge and therefore may indicate populations in need of targeted intervention. This body of research suggests that not allowing participants to indicate their uncertainty may threaten the validity and generalizability of behavior-change research. We provide concrete recommendations for scientists to allow participants to express uncertainty and to analyze the resulting data.
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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.