ArticleScientific reports2022
The symptom discounting effect: what to do when negative genetic test results become risk factors for alcohol use disorder.
Article in Scientific reports, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 6 citations in OpenAlex.
- Implications of Genetic Attributions for Addiction in Adults Affected by Alcohol Use Disorder and Gambling Disorder.Addiction research & theory · 2025Article
- Should we promote alcohol problems as a continuum? Implications for policy and practice.Drugs (Abingdon, England) · 2024Article
- (Mis)understanding alcohol use disorder: Making the case for a public health first approach.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Most consumers of genetic testing for health conditions test negative, yet the psychological perils of this are hardly known. In three experiments (N = 2103) participants discounted repercussions of alcohol use disorder (AUD), after learning or imagining that they were not genetically predisposed to AUD. Such discounting can lead people to avoid treatment and to feel safe to continue or even increase their drinking, ironically turning the negative genetic feedback into a risk factor for AUD. Concerningly, the debriefing currently used by a direct-to-consumer genetic testing company failed to counteract this discounting among those already engaging in problematic drinking in all three studies. It was hypothesized that this discounting derives from not understanding the Causal Markov condition; once AUD symptoms are present, their ramifications remain the same regardless of whether genes or environmental factors caused the symptoms. Educating participants about this principle successfully mitigated the irrational discounting of threats of AUD.
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