title: Local dominance in health risk perception.
abstract: Local comparisons with a few people displace the influence of general comparisons with many people during self-evaluation of performance and ability. The current research examined whether this local dominance effect obtains in the domain of health risk perception, an outcome of critical importance given its direct relation to preventative health behaviours. Participants received manipulated feedback indicating that their risk of diabetes (Study 1) or a serious car accident (Study 2) ranked above average or below average relative to numerous peers. Additionally, some participants were told that their risk ranked highest or lowest relative to a few peers. Participants evaluated their risk as significantly higher when they only knew that it ranked above average than below average. However, this effect was eliminated among participants who received additional local comparison information. These findings highlight the potential biasing influence of local comparison on everyday health judgment and behaviour.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA. e_zell@uncg.edu
authors.forename: Ethan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zell
authors.forename: Mark D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Alicke
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000523:psychology*; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014792:Visual Acuity