Out of control mortality matters: the effect of perceived uncontrollable mortality risk on a health-related decision

Abstract

Prior evidence from the public health literature suggests that both control beliefs and perceived threats to life are important for health behaviour. Our previously presented theoretical model generated the more specific hypothesis that uncontrollable, but not controllable, personal mortality risk should alter the payoff from investment in health protection behaviours. We carried out three experiments to test whether altering the perceived controllability of mortality risk would affect a health-related decision. Experiment 1 demonstrated that a mortality prime could be used to alter a health-related decision: the choice between a healthier food reward (fruit) and an unhealthy alternative (chocolate). Experiment 2 demonstrated that it is the controllability of the mortality risk being primed that generates the effect, rather than mortality risk per se. Experiment 3 showed that the effect could be seen in a surreptitious experiment that was not explicitly health related. Our results suggest that perceptions about the controllability of mortality risk may be an important factor in people’s health-related decisions. Thus, techniques for adjusting perceptions about mortality risk could be important tools for use in health interventions. More importantly, tackling those sources of mortality that people perceive to be uncontrollable could have a dual purpose: Making neighbourhoods and workplaces safer would have the primary benefit of reducing uncontrollable mortality risk, which could lead to a secondary benefit from improved health behaviours.

The behavioural constellation of deprivation: Causes and consequences

“…We have found support for the idea that people may alter their behavioural investments in health in response to perceived extrinsic mortality risk (Pepper & Nettle 2014a;2014b). Evolutionary theoretical models have also shown that physiological investment in health may be calibrated within an individual's lifetime, based on rates of extrinsic mortality (Cichoń1997).…”

“…In experimental tests, we found that if people were primed with information suggesting that prevailing mortality risks were controllable, they were more likely to choose a healthy snack than an unhealthy one. However, those participants who chose a healthier snack did not report a greater intention to eat healthily than participants who did not (Pepper & Nettle 2014a). This outcome suggests that the effect may be due to an implicit, automatic response rather than an explicit, reflective one.…”

“…If people of lower SES feel that they are likely to be killed by something they cannot control, it would make sense for them to invest less effort in looking after their health (the part of their mortality risk that they can control). The reason is that as the component of mortality risk that one cannot influence becomes larger, the odds of living long enough to see the rewards of healthy living diminish (elsewhere, we have called this the uncontrollable mortality risk hypothesis; Pepper & Nettle 2014a).…”

Broadening horizons: Sample diversity and socioecological theory are essential to the future of psychological science

“…A species' life history reflects the effects of selection on the timing and duration of life stages and its events, including juvenile development, age of first reproduction, and rate of senescence. Living in harsh, unpredictable environments characterized by resource insecurity, ecological uncertainty, volatile safety nets, and unsafe neighborhoods can foster a present-oriented disposition that favors short-term benefits despite long-term costs, while discounting long-term benefits that carry short-term costs (31,32). Presentoriented time preference reflects a "fast" life history.…”

“…While species vary along a slow-fast life-history continuum as a function of mortality risks and predictability, similar logic and testing finds individuals in the same species varying in life-history pace as well. According to this view, people who perceive themselves living under harsh conditions that are difficult to control are more likely to abstain from healthy habits, including routine physical activity, a healthy diet, physician check-ups, and preventative care, not because of poor understanding of the health consequences of such abstention, but because other uses of time and money may take precedence if chronic disease risks at later ages are discounted (31,33). Cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, drug use, criminal behavior, overeating, risk taking, and other activities that provide short-term gains but long-term costs have all been associated with (perceptions of) living in an unpredictable, high-mortality environment (34,35).…”