Imagining and explaining hypothetical scenarios: Mediational effects on the subjective likelihood of health-related outcomes

Journal of Applied Social Psychology

Volumn 33, Issue 4, 2003, Pages 869-887

  Sparks, Paul ^a   Harris, Peter R ^b   Raats, Monique ^c  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX   (United Kingdom)

^b UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD   (United Kingdom)

^c UNIVERSITY OF SURREY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0043160143     PISSN: 00219029     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2003.tb01929.x     Document Type: Review

References (34)

1. Anderson, C. A. (1983). Imagination and expectation: The effect of imagining behavioral scripts on personal intentions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 293-305.
2. Armor, D. A., & Taylor, S. E. (1998). Situated optimism. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 30, pp. 309-379). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
3. Beach, L. R. (1990). Image theory: Decision making in personal and organizational contexts. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons.
4. Cannon, G. (1992). Food and health: The experts agree. London, UK: The Consumers' Association.
5. Carroll, J. S. (1978). The effect of imagining an event on expectations for the event: An interpretation in terms of the availability heuristic. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 14, 88-96.
6. Gollwitzer, P. M. (1996). The volitional benefits of planning. In P. M. Gollwitzer & J. A. Bargh (Eds.), The psychology of action: Linking cognition and motivation to behavior (pp. 287-312). New York, NY: Guilford.
7. Gregory, W. L., Burroughs, W. J., & Ainslie, F. A. (1985). Self-relevant scenarios as an indirect means of attitude change. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 435, 435-444.
8. Harris, P., Middleton, W., & Joiner, R. (2000). The typical student as an in-group member: Eliminating optimistic bias by reducing social distance. European Journal of Social Psychology, 30, 235-255.
9. Klein, W. M. (1997). Objective standards are not enough: Affective, self-evaluative, and behavioral responses to social comparison information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 763-774.
10. Klein, W. M., & Weinstein, N. D. (1997). Social comparison and unrealistic optimism about personal risk. In B. P. Buunk & F. X. Gibbons (Eds.), Health, coping and well-being: Perspectives from social comparison theory (pp. 25-61). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
11. Koehler, D. J. (1991). Explanation, imagination, and confidence in judgment. Psychological Bulletin, 110, 499-519.
12. Levi, A. S., & Pryor, J. B. (1987). Use of the availability heuristic in probability estimates of future events: The effects of imagining outcomes versus imagining reasons. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 40, 219-234.
13. Oettingen, G. (1996). Positive fantasy and motivation. In P. M. Gollwitzer & J. A Bargh (Eds.), The psychology of action: Linking cognition and motivation to behavior (pp. 219-235). New York, NY: Guilford.
14. Pham, L. B., & Taylor, S. E. (1999). From thought to action: Effects of process-versus outcome-based mental simulations on performance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 250-260.
15. Ronis, D. L. (1990). Conditional health threats: Health beliefs, decisions, and behaviors among adults. Health Psychology, 11, 127-134.
16. Salovey, P., & Birnbaum, D. (1989). Influence of mood on health-relevant cognitions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 539-551.
17. Schwarz, N. (1998). Accessible content and accessibility experiences: The interplay of declarative and experiential information in judgment. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2(2), 87-99.
18. Sherman, D. A. K., Nelson, A. D., & Steele, C. M. (2000). Do messages about health risks threaten the self? Increasing the acceptance of threatening health messages via self-affirmation. Personality and Social Psycholohgy Bulletin, 26, 1046-1058.
19. Sherman, R. S., & Anderson, C. A. (1987). Decreasing premature termination from psychotherapy. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 5, 298-312.
20. Sherman, S. J., Cialdini, R. B., Schwartzman, D. F., & Reynolds, K. D. (1985). Imagining can heighten or lower the perceived likelihood of contracting a disease: The mediating effect of ease of imagery. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 11, 118-127.
21. Taylor, S. E., & Brown, J. D. (1988). Illusion of well-being: A social psychological perspective on mental health. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 193-210.
22. Taylor, S. E., & Pham, L. B. (1996). Mental simulation, motivation, and action. In P. M. Gollwitzer & J. A Bargh (Eds.), The psychology of action: Linking cognition and motivation to behavior (pp. 219-235). New York, NY: Guilford.
23. Tversky, A., & Koehler, D. J. (1994). Support theory: A nonextensional representation of subjective probability. Psychological Review, 101, 547-567.
24. van der Pligt, J. (1994). Risk appraisal and health behaviour. In D. R. Rutter & L. Quine (Eds.), Social psychology and health: European perspectives (pp. 131-151). Aldershot, UK: Avebury.
25. van der Pligt, J. (1998). Perceived risk and vulnerability as predictors of precautionary behaviour. British Journal of Health Psychology, 3, 1-14.
26. van der Velde, F. W., Hooykas, C., & van der Pligt, J. (1996). Conditional versus unconditional risk estimates in models of AIDS-related risk behavior. Psychology and Health, 12, 87-100.
27. Weinstein, N. D. (1980). Unrealistic optimism about future life events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 806-820.
28. Weinstein, N. D. (1983). Reducing unrealistic optimism about illness susceptibility. Health Psychology, 2, 11-20.
29. Weinstein, N. D. (1984). Why it won't happen to me: Perceptions of risk factors and susceptibility. Health Psychology, 3, 431-457.
30. Weinstein, N. D. (1989). Optimistic biases about personal risk. Science, 246, 1232-1233.
31. Weinstein, N. D., & Klein, W. M. (1995). Resistance of personal risk perceptions to debiasing interventions. Health Psychology, 14, 132-140.
32. World Cancer Research Fund. (1997). Food, nutrition and the prevention of cancer: A global perspective. Washington, DC: American Institute for Cancer Research.
33. World Health Organization. (1990). Diet, nutrition and the prevention of chronic diseases. Geneva, Switzerland: Author.
34. Wilson, T. D., & LaFleur, S. J. (1995). Knowing what you'll do: Effects of analyzing reasons on self-prediction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 21-35.