BACKGROUND: Information avoidance is a defensive strategy that undermines receipt of potentially beneficial but threatening health information and may especially occur when threat management resources are unavailable. PURPOSE: We examined whether individual differences in information avoidance predicted intentions to receive genetic sequencing results for preventable and unpreventable (i.e., more threatening) disease and, secondarily, whether threat management resources of self-affirmation or optimism mitigated any effects. METHODS: Participants (N = 493) in an NIH study (ClinSeq®) piloting the use of genome sequencing reported intentions to receive (optional) sequencing results and completed individual difference measures of information avoidance, self-affirmation, and optimism. RESULTS: Information avoidance tendencies corresponded with lower intentions to learn results, particularly for unpreventable diseases. The association was weaker among individuals higher in self-affirmation or optimism, but only for results regarding preventable diseases. CONCLUSIONS: Information avoidance tendencies may influence decisions to receive threatening health information; threat management resources hold promise for mitigating this association.
BACKGROUND: Information avoidance is a defensive strategy that undermines receipt of potentially beneficial but threatening health information and may especially occur when threat management resources are unavailable. PURPOSE: We examined whether individual differences in information avoidance predicted intentions to receive genetic sequencing results for preventable and unpreventable (i.e., more threatening) disease and, secondarily, whether threat management resources of self-affirmation or optimism mitigated any effects. METHODS:Participants (N = 493) in an NIH study (ClinSeq®) piloting the use of genome sequencing reported intentions to receive (optional) sequencing results and completed individual difference measures of information avoidance, self-affirmation, and optimism. RESULTS: Information avoidance tendencies corresponded with lower intentions to learn results, particularly for unpreventable diseases. The association was weaker among individuals higher in self-affirmation or optimism, but only for results regarding preventable diseases. CONCLUSIONS: Information avoidance tendencies may influence decisions to receive threatening health information; threat management resources hold promise for mitigating this association.
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Authors: Robert C Green; Katrina A B Goddard; Gail P Jarvik; Laura M Amendola; Paul S Appelbaum; Jonathan S Berg; Barbara A Bernhardt; Leslie G Biesecker; Sawona Biswas; Carrie L Blout; Kevin M Bowling; Kyle B Brothers; Wylie Burke; Charlisse F Caga-Anan; Arul M Chinnaiyan; Wendy K Chung; Ellen W Clayton; Gregory M Cooper; Kelly East; James P Evans; Stephanie M Fullerton; Levi A Garraway; Jeremy R Garrett; Stacy W Gray; Gail E Henderson; Lucia A Hindorff; Ingrid A Holm; Michelle Huckaby Lewis; Carolyn M Hutter; Pasi A Janne; Steven Joffe; David Kaufman; Bartha M Knoppers; Barbara A Koenig; Ian D Krantz; Teri A Manolio; Laurence McCullough; Jean McEwen; Amy McGuire; Donna Muzny; Richard M Myers; Deborah A Nickerson; Jeffrey Ou; Donald W Parsons; Gloria M Petersen; Sharon E Plon; Heidi L Rehm; J Scott Roberts; Dan Robinson; Joseph S Salama; Sarah Scollon; Richard R Sharp; Brian Shirts; Nancy B Spinner; Holly K Tabor; Peter Tarczy-Hornoch; David L Veenstra; Nikhil Wagle; Karen Weck; Benjamin S Wilfond; Kirk Wilhelmsen; Susan M Wolf; Julia Wynn; Joon-Ho Yu Journal: Am J Hum Genet Date: 2016-05-12 Impact factor: 11.025