Health and life

Central to unrealistic optimism is the notion of risk perception and the proposal that individuals can process risk information in ways that enables them to continue their unhealthy behaviour. In fact research suggests that those least persuaded by risk data are often those most at risk (Sherman et al. 2000). An example of this is smokers’ ability to continue to smoke even when the words ‘smoking kills’ are written on their packet of cigarettes. Recently, however, it has been suggested that self-affirmation may help reduce the tendency to resist threat information. Self-affirmation theory suggests that people are motivated to protect their sense of self-integrity and their sense of themselves as being ‘adaptively and morally adequate’ (Steele 1988). Therefore if presented with information that threatens their sense of self, they behave defensively. However, if given the opportunity to self-affirm in another domain of their lives, then their need to become defensive is reduced. For example, if a smoker thinks that they are a sensible person, when confronted with a message that says that smoking is not sensible their integrity is threatened and they behave defensively by blocking the information. If given the chance, however, to think about another area in which they are sensible then they are less likely to become defensive about the anti-smoking message. A couple of recent studies have tested the impact of self-affirmation on the processing of information about the link between alcohol and breast cancer in young women and smoking in young smokers (Harris and Napper 2005; Harris et al. 2006). In the first study, young women who were drinking above the recommended limit were randomized either to the self-affirmation condition or the control condition (Harris and Napper 2005). Those in the self-affirmation condition were asked to write about their most important value and why it was important to them. All were then given a health message about the links between excessive alcohol intake and breast cancer. The results showed that those who had self-affirmed were more accepting of the health message. In a similar study, smokers were asked to study four images depicting the dangers of smoking and half underwent a self-affirmation task. These results also showed that those who had self-affirmed rated the images as more threatening and reported higher levels of self-efficacy and intentions to stop smoking (Harris et al. 2006). Therefore it would seem that although people can deny and block the risks associated with their behaviour, this defensive process is reduced if they are encouraged to self-affirm. This approach has implications for a wide range of health-related behaviours and the development of more effective interventions to change behaviour.