April 4-6, 2024 • Hyatt Regency • Lexington, KY
Innovations in Health Communication
Innovations in Health Communication
Abstract: Illusion of Knowing in Colorectal Cancer Prevention: From Media Attention to Efficacy Perception and Screening Intention
Colorectal cancer is a severe public health burden among the Chinese public. Its insidious nature, characterized by the slow development and the absence of overt clinical manifestations in its earlier stages, makes it very challenging for individuals to differentiate colorectal cancer from other gastrointestinal issues. Although there are effective ways to detect colorectal cancer in the earlier stages, such as colonoscopy, a notable deficit in colorectal cancer literacy and awareness among the public still exists. To a large extent, individuals know very little about colorectal cancer, but what is more problematic is that they tend to overestimate their knowledge level and think they know, but actually, they do not. This situation explains the illusion of knowing (IOK) phenomenon, a discrepancy between perceived and actual knowledge in the health learning process, which could influence the development of health outcomes from various perspectives.
Generally, individuals tend to develop a higher level of cancer knowledge if they pay more attention to relevant information in the media. It could then lead to a greater intention to get cancer screening. In this sense, enhanced knowledge level is considered a direct antecedent of health outcomes. However, this process would be very ambiguous in more obscure medical contexts, like colorectal cancer. It is unsure whether individuals would develop accurate health knowledge to make informed health decisions instead of causing IOK after paying attention to obscure cancer issues in the media. Lack of empirical support looked into how IOK functions in this stepwise process. Therefore, considering IOK a cognitive heuristic rooted in the knowledge structure, we postulate that when individuals acquire colorectal cancer information on the media, their IOK would be increased, which directly affects health outcomes.
Therefore, a conceptual model was introduced to examine the concerns above. Specifically, we examined the effect of attention to traditional and digital media channels in stimulating IOK, which then could facilitate cancer prevention outcomes from two perspectives, including efficacy perception (cognitive outcome), and cancer screening intention (behavioral outcome). To test the model, we used survey data collected from 965 (n=965) Chinese respondents by using PROCESS model 4 in R.
Our results showed that paying attention to traditional (β=.23, t=8.05, p<.001) and digital media (β=.48, t=16.58, p<.001) positively facilitated IOK, which, in turn, was positively associated with efficacy perception (β=.30, t=9.64, p<.001) and cancer screening intention (β=.55, t=12.15, p<.001). Our main findings illustrated the positive role of IOK in the health learning process. In addition, we found that IOK significantly mediated four indirect relationships from paying attention to traditional (b=.10, t=7.58, 95% CI:.069-.129) and digital media (b=.26, t=5.87, 95% CI:.213-.311) to efficacy perception (b=.16, t=8.16, 95% CI:.117-.206) and cancer screening intention (b=.35, t=13.62, 95% CI:.283-.409). The finding of indirect effects showed the stepwise relationship from health information acquisition to prevention outcome through the mediating role of IOK as a cognitive heuristic. It depicted the positive role of IOK in health behavior change. Our results offer room to investigate IOK in the intricate health learning process.
Generally, individuals tend to develop a higher level of cancer knowledge if they pay more attention to relevant information in the media. It could then lead to a greater intention to get cancer screening. In this sense, enhanced knowledge level is considered a direct antecedent of health outcomes. However, this process would be very ambiguous in more obscure medical contexts, like colorectal cancer. It is unsure whether individuals would develop accurate health knowledge to make informed health decisions instead of causing IOK after paying attention to obscure cancer issues in the media. Lack of empirical support looked into how IOK functions in this stepwise process. Therefore, considering IOK a cognitive heuristic rooted in the knowledge structure, we postulate that when individuals acquire colorectal cancer information on the media, their IOK would be increased, which directly affects health outcomes.
Therefore, a conceptual model was introduced to examine the concerns above. Specifically, we examined the effect of attention to traditional and digital media channels in stimulating IOK, which then could facilitate cancer prevention outcomes from two perspectives, including efficacy perception (cognitive outcome), and cancer screening intention (behavioral outcome). To test the model, we used survey data collected from 965 (n=965) Chinese respondents by using PROCESS model 4 in R.
Our results showed that paying attention to traditional (β=.23, t=8.05, p<.001) and digital media (β=.48, t=16.58, p<.001) positively facilitated IOK, which, in turn, was positively associated with efficacy perception (β=.30, t=9.64, p<.001) and cancer screening intention (β=.55, t=12.15, p<.001). Our main findings illustrated the positive role of IOK in the health learning process. In addition, we found that IOK significantly mediated four indirect relationships from paying attention to traditional (b=.10, t=7.58, 95% CI:.069-.129) and digital media (b=.26, t=5.87, 95% CI:.213-.311) to efficacy perception (b=.16, t=8.16, 95% CI:.117-.206) and cancer screening intention (b=.35, t=13.62, 95% CI:.283-.409). The finding of indirect effects showed the stepwise relationship from health information acquisition to prevention outcome through the mediating role of IOK as a cognitive heuristic. It depicted the positive role of IOK in health behavior change. Our results offer room to investigate IOK in the intricate health learning process.