Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39438350›Full record

ArticleJournal of behavioral medicine2025

Psychological value theory: predicting health-seeking behavior from symptom perception.

G Ryan Page, Philip Quinlan, Len Lecci, Dale J Cohen

Abstract read
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of behavioral medicine, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

G Ryan PageDepartment of Psychology, The University of North Carolina at Wilmington 601 South College Road, Wilmington, North Carolina, 28403-5612, US.ORCID 0000-0001-8264-2637
Philip QuinlanDepartment of Psychology, The University of York, York, UK.ORCID 0000-0002-8847-6390
Len LecciDepartment of Psychology, The University of North Carolina at Wilmington 601 South College Road, Wilmington, North Carolina, 28403-5612, US.ORCID 0000-0003-2284-8320
Dale J CohenDepartment of Psychology, The University of North Carolina at Wilmington 601 South College Road, Wilmington, North Carolina, 28403-5612, US. cohend@uncw.edu.ORCID 0000-0003-3353-3340

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

We recruit Psychological Value Theory (PVT) to understand how symptom value influences health-seeking decisions. Estimates of the Psychological Value of relief from a particular symptom were previously collected and used to predict the speed of participants' decision and the choice they make in three discrete choice experiments. Experiment 1 presented participants with a scenario and asked them to identify which of two symptoms they would seek healthcare services to treat. For each participant on every trial, two randomly chosen symptoms were inserted into the scenario. Experiment 2 addressed how the Psychological Value of a group of symptoms is predicted from the individual symptoms. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 using groups of two symptoms, and predicted choice based on three grouping functions. Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 2 using a yes/no task, whereby participants were asked if they would pursue a health care visit for a single set of symptoms. The results showed that PVT accurately predicted speed and choice in all three experiments. The Psychological Value of relief from a symptom was the primary driver of choice along with a response bias in favor of avoiding symptoms labeled "severe."Health-seeking decisions are well modeled by a general-purpose, value-based computational model (PVT), with the Psychological Value of relief from health symptoms as a primary driver of health-seeking behavior.

Indexed as

Choice BehaviorPatient Acceptance of Health CarePsychological TheoryAdultDecision MakingFemaleHumansMaleYoung AdultComputational modelingDiscrete choiceHealth seeking decisionsSequential samplingSymptom appraisal

Identifiers

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.