Is ignorance really bliss?: Exploring the interrelationships among information avoidance, health literacy and health justice

Abstract

Although many people cope with illness by seeking information, a considerable proportion of the population prefers to avoid information, aiming to maintain or increase their uncertainty in order to control their anxiety and/or maintain hope. Drawing on a large (n = 3,677), nationally representative survey dataset (the U.S. National Cancer Institute's 2014 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS)), this paper investigates the prevalence of information avoidance (defined here as agreement with the statement, “I'd rather not know my chance of getting cancer”) among the U.S. adult population and identifies associations between information avoidance and other types of demographic, information‐seeking, cognitive/perceptual and social factors. The overarching aim of this research is to explore whether and how the concepts of information avoidance, health literacy and health justice are interrelated. Based on a literature review and a secondary analysis of the HINTS data set, information avoidance, limited health literacy and a lack of health justice appear to be intricately interwoven. In conclusion, suggestions are made as to how we might use these findings to interrupt the usual progression from low health literacy to poor health outcomes, thereby helping to decrease health disparities and address the lack of health justice in this country.

From information seeking to information avoidance: Understanding the health information behavior during a global health crisis

“…It is argued that health literacy is important to develop among all health system stakeholders to cope with the information overload so that they may be able to filter the required information ( Klerings, Weinhandl, & Thaler, 2015 ). Health literacy not only helps individuals to make appropriate health-related decisions but also it has been negatively associated with health-related information overload ( Jiang & Beaudoin, 2016 ) and information avoidance ( St. Jean, Jindal, & Liao, 2017 ). Therefore, it is recommended that health literacy training should be a regular part of public training.…”

What motivates Chinese consumers to avoid information about the COVID-19 pandemic?: The perspective of the stimulus-organism-response model

“…Information avoidance is particularly common in healthcare contexts. According to a national survey in the United States, 31.1% of adults stated that they would rather not know their chance of getting cancer ( St. Jean, Jindal & Liao, 2017 ). McCloud, Jung, Gray and Viswanath (2013) found that one-third of cancer survivors would purposefully avoid cancer information.…”

What Causes Health Information Avoidance Behavior under Normalized COVID-19 Pandemic? A Research from Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis

“…Usually, people tended to avoid genetic screening information that pointed to cancer [ 25 ]. Further research showed that older, less educated, lower household income, unemployed, disabled or retired, and uninsured people were unwilling to know cancer information in the hopes of reducing anxiety and maintaining hope [ 26 ].…”