Objective risk exposure, perceived uncontrollable mortality risk, and health behaviors

Isch, C; Brown, Richard; Todd, Peter M.; Aktipis, C. Athena; Pepper, Gillian

doi:10.1007/s10389-023-01994-2

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…Perceptions of risk can be influenced by a range of factors including personality traits, demographic factors, as well as differences in individual informational environments [ 63 , 64 ]. As discussed, nascent evidence suggests that PUMR is associated with area-level measures of objective risk [ 23 ]. It will be important to understand the extent to which individual perceptions map onto the ecological conditions and prevalence of objectively uncontrollable mortality risk [ 65 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For our mini meta-analysis, we used data from the two studies described above, plus data from our recent study, reported in “ Objective risk exposure, perceived uncontrollable mortality risk, and health behaviors” [ 23 ]. Data were gathered from a USA-representative longitudinal survey study of 915 participants recruited via Prolific (see Table 1 for final sample characteristics once exclusions and missing data were accounted for).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, we emphasized the need for further research to explore other drivers of PUMR and to investigate the accuracy of perceptions of mortality risk. Finally, Isch et al [ 23 ] recently conducted a longitudinal study of risk perceptions in the USA, the findings from which offer support for the association between PUMR and objective measures of risk, using data from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study [ 24 ]. Isch et al [ 23 ] recruited an online sample of US participants and found that uncontrollable risks (as indexed by the environmental/occupational summary exposure variable from the Global Burden of Diseases project) significantly predicted PUMR.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Relationship Between Perceived Uncontrollable Mortality Risk and Health Effort: Replication, Secondary Analysis, and Mini Meta-analysis

Brown,

Pepper

2024

Annals of Behavioral Medicine

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Background The Uncontrollable Mortality Risk Hypothesis (UMRH) states that those who are more likely to die due to factors beyond their control should be less motivated to invest in preventative health behaviors. Greater levels of perceived uncontrollable mortality risk (PUMR) have been associated with lower health effort in previous research, but the topic remains understudied. Purpose To examine the evidence for the UMRH by replicating a previous study investigating the effects of PUMR on social gradients in health effort, and conducting a mini meta-analysis of the overall relationship between PUMR and health effort. Methods We replicated Pepper and Nettle (2014), who reported a negative relationship between PUMR and health effort, and that the positive effect of subjective socioeconomic position on health effort was explained away by PUMR. We also compared the predictive effect of PUMR on health effort with that of dimensions from the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control scale—a well-used measure of a similar construct, which is frequently found to be associated with health behavior. Finally, we conducted a mini meta-analysis of the relationship between PUMR and health effort from the available research. Results PUMR was negatively associated with health effort, and mediated 24% of the total effect of subjective socioeconomic position on health effort, though this mediation effect was weaker than in Pepper and Nettle (2014). PUMR was shown to be a substantially stronger predictor of health effort than the relevant dimensions of the MHLC scale. Finally, our mini meta-analysis indicated a medium-sized negative relationship between PUMR and health effort. Conclusions Our findings offer support for the role of PUMR in mediating the relationship between subjective socioeconomic position and health effort. The results highlight the importance of measuring and understanding PUMR in studying socioeconomic inequalities in health behaviors. We discuss potential areas for future research, including determining the accuracy of PUMR, investigating influential cues, examining the role of media in shaping risk perceptions, and understanding individuals’ awareness of their own perceptions of mortality risk.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Relationship Between Perceived Uncontrollable Mortality Risk and Health Effort: Replication, Secondary Analysis, and Mini Meta-analysis

Brown,

Pepper

2024

Annals of Behavioral Medicine

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“…This finding is supported by our recent replication study [ 45 ], which found that perceived uncontrollable mortality risk partially mediated the positive relationship between subjective discretionary income and health effort. Our recent mini meta-analysis found that perceived uncontrollable mortality risk has been repeatedly shown to predict lower self-reported health effort [ 44–46 ], providing additional support for the assumptions of the Uncontrollable Mortality Risk Hypothesis. Levels of perceived uncontrollable mortality risk were also shown to be higher when taking the threat of COVID-19 into account [ 42 , 55 ].…”

Section: The Uncontrollable Mortality Risk Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Furthermore, the behavioural ecological model from Nettle [ 19 ] underlying the Uncontrollable Mortality Risk Hypothesis, along with subsequent research [ 18 , 35 , 41 , 42 ], previously referred to ‘extrinsic mortality risk’, whereas ‘uncontrollable mortality risk’ has been used more recently to refer to mortality risk that cannot be reduced by behaviour [ 43–46 ]. This is because the definition of ‘extrinsic mortality risk’ employed by evolutionary models for understanding senescence [ 47–51 ] differs from that of human health behaviour literature relevant to the Uncontrollable Mortality Risk Hypothesis [ 15 , 18 , 19 , 41 , 44 , 46 , 52–54 ]. The former typically defines ‘extrinsic mortality risk’ as an age and condition-independent component of environmental risk caused by external hazards such as predation, parasitism and inclement weather [ 19 , 51 ].…”

Section: The Uncontrollable Mortality Risk Hypothesismentioning

confidence: 99%

The Uncontrollable Mortality Risk Hypothesis

Brown,

Pepper

2024

Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health

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The ‘Uncontrollable Mortality Risk Hypothesis’ employs a behavioural ecological model of human health behaviours to explain the presence of social gradients in health. It states that those who are more likely to die due to factors beyond their control should be less motivated to invest in preventative health behaviours. We outline the theoretical assumptions of the hypothesis and stress the importance of incorporating evolutionary perspectives into public health. We explain how measuring perceived uncontrollable mortality risk can contribute towards understanding socioeconomic disparities in preventative health behaviours. We emphasise the importance of addressing structural inequalities in risk exposure, and argue that public health interventions should consider the relationship between overall levels of mortality risk and health behaviours across domains. We suggest that measuring perceptions of uncontrollable mortality risk can capture the unanticipated health benefits of structural risk interventions, as well as help to assess the appropriateness of different intervention approaches.

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Perception of uncontrollable mortality risk is associated with food insecurity and reduced economic effort among resource‐insecure college students during COVID‐19

Roulette,

Kopels

2024

American J Hum Biol

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In the framework of the uncontrollable mortality risk hypothesis, resource scarcity intersects with mortality risk, shaping resource allocation strategies with enduring impacts on human health and wellbeing. Despite rising economic and food insecurity among US college students, little is known about how these insecurities relate to mortality risk, or how scarcity and mortality risk interact to shape college students' resource allocation strategies. We examine perceptions of resource scarcity and mortality risk and their associations with food insecurity and resource allocation strategies among economically insecure college students during COVID‐19 lockdowns. Participants were recruited through an economic crisis response center at a major public university in the United States. A total of 118 participants completed an online Qualtrics survey assessing sociodemographic characteristics, perceptions of mortality risk and resource availability, food security, economic effort, and time perspective; a subset (n = 51) also participated in a telephone interview assessing psychological distress. In general, participants reported more environmental adversity and economic effort during COVID‐19 lockdowns compared to before. Students experiencing higher levels of uncontrollable (and not controllable) mortality risk report lower levels of economic effort, and the association was strongest among students perceiving the fewest resources. We also found significant associations between uncontrollable mortality risk and food insecurity. Our results highlight uncontrollable mortality risk's influence on human well‐being. Public health efforts should target the experiences and root structural causes of uncontrollable mortality risk, which among economically insecure college students increasingly involves food insecurity.

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Objective risk exposure, perceived uncontrollable mortality risk, and health behaviors

Cited by 4 publications

References 28 publications

The Relationship Between Perceived Uncontrollable Mortality Risk and Health Effort: Replication, Secondary Analysis, and Mini Meta-analysis

The Relationship Between Perceived Uncontrollable Mortality Risk and Health Effort: Replication, Secondary Analysis, and Mini Meta-analysis

The Uncontrollable Mortality Risk Hypothesis

Perception of uncontrollable mortality risk is associated with food insecurity and reduced economic effort among resource‐insecure college students during COVID‐19

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