Effects of high treatability information on preventative intention of bowel cancer

Background: The information that indicates a disease is highly treatable is called ‘high treatability information’ (HTI). This HTI may decrease people’s preventative intention of the disease. The current study examined the effects of HTI on preventative intention of bowel cancer. Procedure of self-affirmation was used to reduce the defensive responses to HTI. Methods: This study employed a 3(control versus low versus high treatability) × 2(self-affirmation versus no self-affirmation)-experiment. The participants (N = 717) were recruited from both China and the Netherlands, and they were randomly assigned to one of the six conditions. The main outcome was preventative intention of bowel cancer. The moderating effects of age and response efficacy were examined. Findings: Analyses revealed a two-way interaction between treatability and age, whereby when participants were young, exposure to HTI decreased the preventative intention of bowel cancer. There was also a three-way interaction among treatability, self-affirmation and response efficacy, whereby when response efficacy was low and participants were self-affirmed, participants exposed to HTI showed lower preventative intention of bowel cancer than those exposed to low treatability information. Discussion: These results suggest there were side-effects of HTI on preventative intention of bowel cancer.