
Faculty Proceedings, Presentations, Speeches and Lectures
Event Title
Society for Judgment and Decision Making: The 2019 40th Annual Conference
Event Location
Montréal, Québec, Canada
Document Type
Paper
Presentation Date
11-16-2019
Date Range
2019-11-15 to 2019-11-18
Description
How do people make decisions? Prior research focuses on how people's cost-benefit assessments affect which medical treatments they choose. We propose that people also worry about what these health decisions signal about who they are. Across four studies, we find that medication is thought to be the "easy way out", signaling a lack of willpower and character. These moral beliefs lower the appeal of medications. Manipulating these beliefs--by framing medication as a signal of superior willpower or by highlighting the idea that treatment choice is just a preference--increases preferences for medication.
NSUWorks Citation
Scott, S. E.,
Landy, J. F.
(2019). Good People Don't Need Medication: How Moral Character Beliefs Affect Medical Decision-Making. .
Available at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cps_facpresentations/4639