%A ZHANG Baoshan, JIN Dou, MA Mengjia, XU Ran %T The effect of aging stereotypes on the quality of medical decision-making and the mediating role of attribution bias %0 Journal Article %D 2022 %J Acta Psychologica Sinica %R 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.00951 %P 951-963 %V 54 %N 8 %U {https://journal.psych.ac.cn/acps/CN/abstract/article_5032.shtml} %8 2022-08-25 %X
The quality of decision-making in older people decreases with age. In medical decision-making, poor medical decisions in older adults can have a range of adverse effects. Therefore, exploring the influencing factors of the quality of medical decision-making is necessary. Aging stereotypes are closely related to the quality of decision-making. Negative aging stereotypes will have a negative impact on the decision-making of older adults. However, the relationship between aging stereotypes and the quality of medical decision-making has not been fully studied, and the mechanism between the two remains unclear.
As an important concept in social cognitive psychology, attribution bias is closely related to aging stereotypes and medical decision-making. When encountering behaviors or phenomena consistent with stereotypes, people are more inclined to attribute such behaviors internally to maintain the stereotypes. Furthermore, attribution bias is an important factor in decision-making, and the attribution bias of the older adults will have a significant impact on their subsequent treatment decisions. Nevertheless, the role of attribution bias in the relationship between aging stereotypes and medical decision-making in older adults remains unknown. Thus, this study attempts to clarify the relationship between aging stereotypes and medical decision-making and reveal the mediating role of attribution bias in the relationship between aging stereotypes and medical decision-making.
This study has two experiments. Experiment 1 attempted to explore the relationship between aging stereotypes, attribution bias, and quality of medical decision-making in older adults. Experiment 2 attempted to further verify the relationship between the three by training attribution bias. Seventy-eight older adults were recruited as participants in Experiment 1 (see
Eighty participants were recruited in Experiment 2 (see
SPSS 25.0 was used for the statistical analysis of the data. Experiment 1 found that the aging stereotypes negatively predicted the quality of medical decisions and increased the internal attribution bias. The internal attribution bias in the stereotype threat group was significantly higher than that in the control group, and the quality of medical decision-making was substantially lower than that in the control group (see
Results of Experiment 2 show that the internal attribution bias of participants in the attribution bias intervention group was significantly lower than that in the stereotypes threat group, and the quality of medical decision-making was significantly higher than that in the stereotypes threat group (see
This study enriches the previous research on the influence of stereotypes on decision-making. It has certain practical value for alleviating the negative effect of stereotypes in older adults and improving the quality of individual medical decision-making.