Information avoidance and medical screening: A field experiment in China

Author

Yufeng LI, Capital Medical University
Juanjuan MENG, Peking University
Changcheng SONG, Singapore Management UniversityFollow
Kai ZHENG, University of California, Irvine

Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

acceptedVersion

Publication Date

7-2021

Abstract

Will individuals, especially high-risk individuals, avoid a disease test because of information avoidance? We conduct a field experiment to investigate this issue. We vary the price of a diabetes test (price experiment) and offer both a diabetes test and a cancer test (disease experiment) after eliciting participants’ subjective beliefs about their disease risk. We find evidence that, first, some people avoid the test even when there is neither a monetary nor a transaction cost, and second, both low- and high-risk individuals select out of the test as the price increases. We explain our findings using three classes of models of anticipatory utility.

Keywords

Anticipation Utility, Information Avoidance, Health Anxiety, Health Screening

Discipline

Behavioral Economics | Finance and Financial Management | Public Health

Research Areas

Finance

Publication

Management Science

Volume

67

Issue

7

First Page

4252

Last Page

4272

ISSN

0025-1909

Identifier

10.1287/mnsc.2020.3723

Publisher

INFORMS

Embargo Period

7-9-2021

Citation

LI, Yufeng; MENG, Juanjuan; SONG, Changcheng; and ZHENG, Kai. Information avoidance and medical screening: A field experiment in China. (2021). Management Science. 67, (7), 4252-4272.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/6729

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2020.3723