The malleable effect of name fluency on pharmaceutical drug perception

Abstract

Based on the fluency theory, a recent study by Dohle and Siegrist revealed that complex pharmaceutical drug names are perceived as more hazardous than simple drug names and thus negatively influence patients' willingness to buy. This study explored the malleability of the name fluency effect on pharmaceutical drug perception by examining the fluency effect in the domain of risk versus advancedness judgment. The findings indicated that depending on how the fluency feeling is interpreted in the context of initial judgment task (e.g. advancedness vs risk), disfluent drug names can positively influence a patient's perception of the drug, reversing the typical fluency effect.

Metacognitive experiences as information: Processing fluency in consumer judgment and decision making

“…Subsequent work showed that drugs with easy to pronounce names are perceived as safer and having fewer side‐effects (Dohle & Siegrist, 2014), which encourages the consumption of higher doses (Dohle & Montoya, 2017). The advantages of fluent, and disadvantages of disfluent, product names are undermined when perceivers are led to see disfluent names as a marker of technologically advanced products that they have not encountered before, thus turning a lack of familiarity into a promise of progress (Cho, 2015). In related work, Newman et al.…”

The Impact of Medical Terminology in Self-Triage Decision-Making

“…Previous studies report reverse fluency effects, where disfluency is interpreted positively, in instances where traits associated with disfluency, like unfamiliarity, were considered positive (Pocheptsova et al, 2010;Galak and Nelson, 2011;Cho, 2015). Cho (2015) replicated Dohle and Siegrist's (Dohle and Siegrist, 2014) findings that complex drug names were perceived as riskier, but found that the same complex drug names were also perceived as more technologically advanced. When asked to estimate the likelihood of FDA approval, individuals who had rated the drug names for advancedness perceived the complex drug names as more likely to be approved.…”

“…In contrast, individuals who had rated the names for riskiness perceived complex names as less likely to be approved. The context of a judgment (e.g., advancedness versus risk) determined the direction of effect for fluency on perceptions (Cho, 2015). The present study represents a situation where disfluency may be interpreted as uncertainty and associated with increased urgency to seek medical care.…”

Confusing the drug facts on one nonprescription drug label with those on another: The Drug Facts Label as a text schema

“…Still others have examined the degree to which naive beliefs about a nonprescription drug can be corrected by reading the drug label (Ryan, 2011). However, much of the research in this area has focused on improving the quality of the label format or text (Bennin and Rother, 2014; Catlin et al, 2012; Cho, 2015; Pawaskar and Sansgiry, 2006; Schwartz et al, 2007; Shrank et al, 2007; Wasowicz et al, 2015). More than a decade ago, Morris and Aikin (2001: 510–519) provided a very thorough review of the nature of the cognitive processes that might contribute to the effective comprehension of drug labels and the many patient influences that might influence those processes.…”