Causal Beliefs Research Articles

Comparison of the Effects of a Genetic, a Mild Encephalitis, and a Psychosocial Causal Explanation of Schizophrenia on Stigmatizing Attitudes - a Pilot Study With a Quasi-Experimental Design.

Background: Previous research has shown that the endorsement of biogenetic causal explanations of schizophrenia is associated with stronger stigmatizing attitudes against people with schizophrenia than the endorsement of psychosocial explanations. However, little is known about whether different biogenetic causal explanation beliefs differentially affect stigmatizing attitudes. This is particularly valid for the endorsement of the mild encephalitis hypothesis of schizophrenia.Aim: To examine to what extent different causal explanations of schizophrenia influence the desire for social distance from persons with schizophrenia.Methods: A study with a prospective, quasi-experimental design was carried out with students in Germany (N = 333). A case vignette depicting a person with schizophrenia-typical symptoms was presented, and a social distance scale (SDS) was used to measure the stigmatizing attitude against the person described. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups receiving different causal explanations of schizophrenia (genetic, mild encephalitis hypothesis, or psychosocial) without treatment information.Results: A one-way ANOVA showed that the mean SDS was lowest in the group with the mild encephalitis hypothesis explanation, followed by the genetic explanation group, and highest in the psychosocial explanation group. However, the differences between the groups were small and not significant. A subanalysis revealed a significant interaction between gender and causal explanation. Women showed a significantly lower desire for social distance than men when receiving the mild encephalitis hypothesis. Neither the study discipline nor the number of semesters of study had significant effects on the mean SDS. The differences between the mean SDS scores for the different items were much bigger than the differences for the different causal explanations. Regardless of the causal explanation, the extent of the desired social distance depends strongly on social proximity.Conclusion: The present study fits into previous research, which has found that biogenetic beliefs were either associated with more social distance or did not yield a statistically significant association. Although we found a small gender-specific effect of the endorsement of the mild encephalitis hypothesis, we do not recommend gender-specific anti-stigmatization campaigns because they might rightly raise suspicions of dishonesty and manipulation. Rather we support recovery-oriented messages focusing on effective treatments.

A qualitative study exploring community pharmacists’ perspectives of child and adolescent mental healthcare

Community pharmacists are involved in the health delivery sector through the provision of services that result in improved patient outcomes and optimization of pharmaceutical care. With growing concern about increasing prevalence of mental disorders in children and adolescents, the expanded roles of pharmacists in providing mental health services may be essential. This study aimed to explore the perspective of community pharmacists in child and adolescent mental healthcare (CAMH) service provision. A qualitative study employing semi-structured face-to-face individual interviews was conducted among 25 community pharmacists in Accra to explore their perspectives and experiences in service provision for children and adolescents with mental illness. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and thematically analyzed in line with the study objective. Emerging themes from the results are presented and supported by narratives from the community pharmacists. Most of the participants were female (n = 15, 60%), 32.32 ± 10 years old and have an average of 7.68 ± 9.4 years of professional practice. The m main themes identified from the findings were (1) Illness perception (2) Use of medicines (3) CAMH service provision practices and (4) Barriers to CAMH service provision. The participants' perception about child and adolescent mental illness was along the dimensions of causal beliefs. They also acknowledged the role of medications in symptom reduction and improved mental health outcomes while indicating their safety concerns about these medicines. Community pharmacists were involved in CAMH activities by providing medication-related support, triaging, and appropriate referrals. However, barriers such as inadequate training, lack of subsidies for psychotropic medications for community pharmacies and poor linkage with health providers and facilities, limit community pharmacists’ involvement in the provision of these services.CAMH service provision by community pharmacists could be facilitated by training, psychotropic medicines subsidy support and enhanced linkage with hospitals while highlighting greater recognition of these services at the community level to support the policy agenda of deinstitutionalizing mental healthcare.

Surviving to Acute Myocardial Infarction: The Role of Psychological Factors and Alexithymia in Delayed Time to Searching Care: A Systematic Review.

The time from symptom onset to reperfusion is a critical determinant of myocardial salvage and clinical outcomes in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). This time period could be delayed if people do not seek help promptly and/or if the health system is not efficient in responding quickly and attending to these individuals. The aim of this study was to identify psychological factors associated with pre-hospital delay (PHD) or patients’ decisional delay (PDD) in people with an ongoing AMI. A search in PubMed/Medline from 1990 to 2021 with the keywords “pre-hospital delay” OR “prehospital delay” OR “patient delay” OR “decisional delay” OR “care seeking behavior” AND “psychological factors” OR “alexithymia” AND “myocardial infarction” was performed. Thirty-six studies were included, involving 10.389 patients. Wrong appraisal, interpretation and causal beliefs about symptoms, denial of the severity of the symptoms and high levels of alexithymia were found related to longer PHD or PDD. Alexithymia may be an overarching construct that explains the disparate findings of the studies exploring the role of psychological factors in PHD or PDD. Further studies are needed in order to analyse the role of alexithymia in patients with risk factors for AMI to prevent delay.

Causal Beliefs for Socioeconomic Status Attainment Scale: Development and Validation

ABSTRACT That individuals attain socioeconomic status (SES) through their own effort and ability, which is a staple pillar of the meritocratic ethos and has been a popular topic of inquiry within social psychology. However, this focus on merit overshadowed other important causal factors that contribute to one’s SES, such as opportunity and chance. This study presents psychometrically validated scales measuring one’s causal beliefs of SES attainment for themselves (agency beliefs) and others (society beliefs). Utilizing a nationally representative sample, participants completed 68 items of causal agency and society beliefs for low and high SES attainment. Through factor analyses, item response theory, and careful item reduction, three subscales and six dimensions measuring (1) merit (effort and ability), (2) opportunity (social connections and privilege), and (3) chance (luck and fate) are introduced for each belief system. Correlation analyses reveal general support for construct validity. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Interpolating causal mechanisms: The paradox of knowing more.

Causal knowledge is not static; it is constantly modified based on new evidence. The present set of seven experiments explores 1 important case of causal belief revision that has been neglected in research so far: causal interpolations. A simple prototypic case of an interpolation is a situation in which we initially have knowledge about a causal relation or a positive covariation between 2 variables but later become interested in the mechanism linking these 2 variables. Our key finding is that the interpolation of mechanism variables tends to be misrepresented, which leads to the paradox of knowing more: The more people know about a mechanism, the weaker they tend to find the probabilistic relation between the 2 variables (i.e., weakening effect). Indeed, in all our experiments we found that, despite identical learning data about 2 variables, the probability linking the 2 variables was judged higher when follow-up research showed that the 2 variables were assumed to be directly causally linked (i.e., C→E) than when participants were instructed that the causal relation is in fact mediated by a variable representing a component of the mechanism (M; i.e., C→M→E). Our explanation of the weakening effect is that people often confuse discoveries of preexisting but unknown mechanisms with situations in which new variables are being added to a previously simpler causal model, thus violating causal stability assumptions in natural kind domains. The experiments test several implications of this hypothesis. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Causal Inference Gates Corticostriatal Learning.

Attributing outcomes to your own actions or to external causes is essential for appropriately learning which actions lead to reward and which actions do not. Our previous work showed that this type of credit assignment is best explained by a Bayesian reinforcement learning model which posits that beliefs about the causal structure of the environment modulate reward prediction errors (RPEs) during action value updating. In this study, we investigated the brain networks underlying reinforcement learning that are influenced by causal beliefs using functional magnetic resonance imaging while human participants (n = 31; 13 males, 18 females) completed a behavioral task that manipulated beliefs about causal structure. We found evidence that RPEs modulated by causal beliefs are represented in dorsal striatum, while standard (unmodulated) RPEs are represented in ventral striatum. Further analyses revealed that beliefs about causal structure are represented in anterior insula and inferior frontal gyrus. Finally, structural equation modeling revealed effective connectivity from anterior insula to dorsal striatum. Together, these results are consistent with a possible neural architecture in which causal beliefs in anterior insula are integrated with prediction error signals in dorsal striatum to update action values.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Learning which actions lead to reward-a process known as reinforcement learning-is essential for survival. Inferring the causes of observed outcomes-a process known as causal inference-is crucial for appropriately assigning credit to one's own actions and restricting learning to effective action-outcome contingencies. Previous studies have linked reinforcement learning to the striatum, and causal inference to prefrontal regions, yet how these neural processes interact to guide adaptive behavior remains poorly understood. Here, we found evidence that causal beliefs represented in the prefrontal cortex modulate action value updating in posterior striatum, separately from the unmodulated action value update in ventral striatum posited by standard reinforcement learning models.

Parental Beliefs About Causes of Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Investigation of a Research Measure Using Principal Component Analysis

BackgroundParents’ perceptions about cause of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) influences their behaviors (e.g., treatment selection, vaccinations). The Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire for ASD (IPQ-R-ASD) offers a systematic way to measure parent parents’ perceptions of ASD cause, but further study is needed. MethodUsing principal component analysis (PCA), we investigated the factor structure of the IPQ-R-ASD Cause scale, which was administered online, in a sample of 326 North American parents (287 mothers [88 %], 39 fathers) raising children with confirmed ASD diagnoses. ResultsSix factors emerged on the Cause subscale and were labeled Personal Attributions, Parental Risk Factors, Environmental Risk Factors, Utero/Birth Stress, Biophysiological, and Metaphysical. Together, these factors accounted for a cumulative variance of 61.4 %. All items exceeded the minimum loading to be considered robust, and all but one loaded positively (i.e., “Will of God). ConclusionsUnderstanding parental perceptions about the cause of their children’s ASD may help researchers and clinicians understand important aspects of raising a child with ASD, such as stress and coping responses, treatment selection and implementation, or shared decision-making about service use. Since measurement of causal beliefs is an important initial step in this direction, the current study is helpful in establishing the viability of a measure that may extend this line of research and, ultimately, the instrument’s clinical utility.

Beliefs About the Causes of Psychosis Among Persons With Psychosis and Mental Health Professionals: A Scoping Review.

The beliefs that people with psychosis hold about causes of their illness (causal beliefs) can affect their choice to adhere to treatment and engage in mental health services. However, less is known about causal beliefs of mental health professionals (MHPs) and their impact on treatment adherence and service engagement. This review explored literature focusing on MHPs' causal beliefs and mapped the degree of concordance between their causal beliefs and those of people with psychosis. A systematic literature search of PubMed, Embase, Scopus, PsycINFO, and Applied Social Sciences Index Abstracts and a gray-literature search of PsyArXiv and MedNar yielded 11,821 eligible references. The first author reviewed all titles and abstracts, and the coauthors reviewed 10% (N=1,200). Forty-two articles were included. Most articles indicated that MHPs tend to endorse biogenetic beliefs (9 of 15 articles assessing MHPs' beliefs, 60%), whereas people with psychosis tend to endorse psychosocial beliefs (16 of 31 articles, 52%) and other nonbiogenetic beliefs (in 8 of 31 articles, 26%). Most studies did not compare causal beliefs of people with psychosis and their treating MHP. Studies varied in design, setting, and measures. MHPs and people with psychosis often hold complex views composed of different types of causal beliefs. However, a gap in causal beliefs between these groups appears to exist, which may affect the therapeutic relationship and pose barriers to treatment adherence. Future studies should address this gap by developing interventions that facilitate open communication about causal beliefs to promote treatment alliance and shared decision making.

Beliefs About the Causes of Type 2 Diabetes Among First-Generation Asian Indians in the United States.

Asian Indians (AIs) have the highest prevalence rates (18.3%-29%) of diabetes in any minority group in the United States, yet little is known about their beliefs about what causes type 2 diabetes. The purpose of this study was to examine first generation AIs causal beliefs about type 2 diabetes. Interpretative phenomenology was used to interview 12 first-generation AI participants with type 2 diabetes to elicit causal beliefs of their disease. Interpretative and thematic analysis were completed. Beliefs about the causes of diabetes in AIs were influenced by a general familiarity with the disease, limited knowledge about causal and preventative factors of the disease, and gender specific roles and norms. Health programs that aim to incorporate AI's cultural and health beliefs about the causes of diabetes are warranted.

Mothers’ perception of cerebral palsy in a low-income country of West Africa: a cross-sectional study

Purpose Investigating mothers’ perceptions of Cerebral Palsy (CP) and the impact of caregiving on family life in Benin, a west-African low to middle-income country (LMIC). Methods In this cross-sectional study we interviewed at their homes 88 mothers of children with CP about their perception of the cause of CP and stigmatization issues. Additionally, they completed the Impact on Family Scale and the Family Support Scale questionnaires. Multinomial and ordinal regressions analyses were used (p < 0.05). Results Most mothers (78%) referred to non-biomedical causes of CP (God’s will or curse). Caregivers with a limited education level were more likely to report non-biomedical beliefs. Only 28% reported having received from physicians an explanation of the causes of CP. Around 38% endorsed neighbors considered their children as cursed, which is a source of stigmatization. Mothers perceived a high impact of caregiving on their family life that correlated with non-biomedical beliefs, low education level, and the severity of CP. Conclusion There is a need in Benin, and probably in West-African LMICs generally, to shift to a family-centered care system and to inform the public about the root causes of CP to improve social integration of children with CP and decrease the negative impact on their families. Implication for rehabilitation Mothers with a limited education level are more likely to report non-biomedical causes of CP in this LMIC; mothers’ level of education and non-biomedical beliefs of causes of CP are associated to a high impact of caregiving on family life in this LMIC; mothers of children with CP in this LMIC do not perceive health-workers helpful.

Intentions to see a psychologist for weight management: A cross‐sectional study investigating beliefs about psychologists, psychological services and obesity

AbstractObjectivesThe current study investigated beliefs about psychologists, psychological services and obesity, and their association with intentions to see a psychologist for weight management.MethodsA cross‐sectional online survey design was employed in a sample of 136 adults with overweight or obesity (n = 121 females, M age = 37.58, SD = 9.85).ResultsPsychologists and psychological services were viewed favourably by participants, with little evidence of role knowledge deficits or significant treatment barriers. Behavioural and social causal beliefs about obesity were indirectly associated with intentions to see a psychologist for weight management through positive associations with psychologists' perceived helpfulness in lifestyle intervention. Indirect effects were not observed for psychological and medical causal beliefs.ConclusionPromotion of psychological services in obesity could highlight their utility in addressing behavioural and social factors. However, there is a need for more research into avoidance of all sources of professional support in this context.

Health professional's willingness to advocate for strengthening global commitments to the Paris climate agreement: Findings from a multi-nation survey.

Health professionals have the potential to address the health threats posed by climate change in many ways. This study sought to understand the factors that influence health professionals' willingness to engage in climate advocacy. We hypothesized and tested a model with six antecedent factors predicting willingness to engage in advocacy for strengthening global commitments to the Paris Agreement. Using survey data from members of health professional associations in 12 nations (n=3,977), we tested the hypothesized relationships with structural equation modeling. All of the hypothesized relationships were confirmed. Specifically, higher rates of perceived expert consensus about human-caused climate change predicted greater climate change belief certainty and belief in human causation. In turn, all three of these factors, including higher levels of perceived health harms from climate change, positively predicted affective involvement with the issue. Affective involvement positively predicted the feeling that health professionals have a responsibility to deal with climate change. Lastly, this sense that climate advocacy is a responsibility of health professionals strongly predicted willingness to advocate. As a unique study of predictors of health professionals' willingness to advocate for climate change, our findings provide unique insight into how an influential set of trusted voices might be activated to address what is arguably the world's most pressing public health threat. Limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are presented, and implications for message development are discussed.

Virtual Simulation in Undergraduate Nursing Education: Effects on Students' Correct Recognition of and Causative Beliefs About Mental Disorders.

Virtual simulation as an emerging nursing pedagogy can facilitate optimal learning through the use of experiential learning and technology. The purpose of this prospective cohort study was to assess the long-term effects of virtual simulation on undergraduate nursing students' recognition of and causative beliefs about depression and schizophrenia. Students' responses from the simulation cohort (n = 149) and the nonsimulation cohort (n = 150) at a school of nursing in the United States were compared. While students' responses were fairly similar between the two cohorts, students who received virtual simulations more often rated character weakness as an unlikely cause for schizophrenia than those who did not receive virtual simulations. The major difference supports the use of virtual simulation in influencing positive changes in nursing students' perceptions and attitudes toward mental illness.

A latent profile analysis of teachers’ causal attribution for academic success or failure

In educational contexts, interpersonal attributional theory (Weiner, 2019) posits that teachers’ beliefs about the causes underlying their students’ academic performance vary along the causal dimensions of locus of causality, stability, personal controllability, and others’ controllability. Based on this framework, this study aimed at identifying teachers’ attribution profiles based on their perceptions about the causes of their students’ achievements. Two hundred eighty-nine experienced and novice French primary school teachers reported their causal beliefs about a student’s success or failure at a reading test, as well as their emotional and behavioral reactions to their student’s outcome. The data were analyzed using latent profile analyses, which identified five teachers’ attribution profiles that varied on the four causal dimensions. The results showed that profile memberships were greatly determined by the student’s outcome valence: three teachers’ attribution profiles were especially related to failure and two additional profiles to success. Profile memberships were associated with various cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions in line with the interpersonal attributional theory of motivation. The powerless profile — high external and uncontrollable attributions — indicated the lowest level of helping behavior. The conscientious profile — high internal and controllable attributions — indicated the highest levels of pride and student’s responsibility. Overall, these results partially support Weiner’s interpersonal attributional theory of motivation using a person-centered approach.

The role of causal knowledge in stigma considerations in African genomics research: Views of South African Xhosa people

Introduction: Advances in genomics research have raised several ethical concerns. One concern is the potential impact of genomics research on stigma experienced by people affected by a disease. Studies have found that the type of illness as well as disease causal beliefs impact on the relation between genetic attribution and stigma. This study explored the potential impact of genetic attribution of disease on stigma among Xhosa people with Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD). Methods: Study participants were 46 Xhosa people with RHD living in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Using video vignettes in 7 focus group discussions we explored whether and how genetic attribution may impact on disease-stigma. Vignettes introduced participants to non-genetic and genetic causal explanations and were followed-up with a series of open-ended questions eliciting their perceptions of non-genetic disease causes as well as genetic causation and its impact on internalised stigma. Results: This study found that Xhosa people with RHD have a general understanding of genetics and genetic attribution for disease. Additionally, and not withstanding their genetic knowledge, these participants hold multiple disease causal beliefs including genetic, infectious disease, psychosocial, behavioural and cultural explanations. While there was evidence of internalised stigma experiences among participants, these appeared not to be related to a genetic attribution to the disease. Discussion: The findings of this study provide clues as to why it is unlikely that a genetic conceptualisation of disease impacts internalised stigma experiences of Xhosa people. The causal explanations provided by participants reflect their cultural understandings and their context, namely, living in low-income and poverty-stricken environments. Divergence in these findings from much of the evidence from high-income countries emphasises that context matters when considering the impact of genetic attribution on stigma and caution against generalising findings from one part of the globe to another.

Perception about Etiology of Epilepsy and Help-Seeking Behavior in Patients with Epilepsy

Abstract Objectives Patients with epilepsy and their family have diverse beliefs about the cause of their illness that generally determine their treatment-seeking behavior. In this study, our aim was to find out different beliefs about epilepsy that lead to different help-seeking patterns, which act as barrier to the intended modern medical management of epilepsy. Materials and Methods One hundred and fifty consecutive consenting patients accompanied by a reliable informant/family member fulfilling the International Classification of Epileptic Seizures (ICES), simplified version, were included. Demographic and clinical data of all the eligible subjects was collected. Perceived cause of illness and help-seeking pattern were explored from patient/informant by administering proper instruments. Results Respondents identified varied causes of epilepsy and explored multiple help-seeking options before reaching tertiary care centers. We observed that, generally, epileptic patients/relatives who had belief in causes like supernatural causes sought help from nonprofessional personnel and those attributed their symptom to bodily pathology had professional help-seeking. Conclusions The belief in supernatural causes not being conformed to the biomedical models of the epileptic disorders increases the treatment gap.

Beliefs about schizophrenia’s causes among family members

IntroductionInvestigating family members’ causal beliefs regarding schizophrenia is an important step in the management of the illness; it may affect adherence to treatment of patients with schizophrenia.ObjectivesTo investigate the beliefs about the causes of schizophrenia among families of patients with schizophrenia.MethodsWe led a cross sectional descriptive study involving 32family members of patients suffering from schizophrenia who were followed in the psychiatry department of Hedi Chaker University Hospital in Sfax (Tunisia), between May to September 2019. Data was collected from the medical records and the questionnaire designed to the study.ResultsThe mean age of the relatives was 60.8 years, with a sex-ratio of 1.6. The relatives included 20 fathers (62.5%), six wives (18.8%), three mothers (9.4%), and three sisters (9.4%). Among them, 37.5 % were illiterate; 37.5% lived in rural area. Fourteen participants (43.8%) had cited at least two possible causes of schizophrenia. The most frequently cited causes were emotional shock (81%) and god’s will or fate (72%) followed by witchcraft (37.7%). The belief of God’s will and fate was associated with poor compliance to treatment (p=0.06). The belief of supernatural cause was correlated to rural origin (p=0.000) and advanced age of participants (p=0.000).Significant correlation was also found between family history of mental disorders and beliefs on hereditary causes (p=0.000).ConclusionsThese results suggest that family members of patients suffering from schizophrenia need to be better informed about its main causes to improve both compliance to treatment and social integration of this patients.

Can God do the impossible? Anthropomorphism and children’s certainty that God can make impossible things possible

This study examined beliefs about the possibility of impossible events in early childhood. Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, and Non-Affiliate parent-child dyads (N = 222) first indicated if 4 impossible events could happen in real life; they then indicated their level of certainty that God could make the events happen. Children’s judgments about whether or not God could make impossible events possible depended on their age and concepts of God. Specifically, 5- to 6-year-old children with non-humanlike views of God had greater certainty that God could make impossible events possible than children with a humanlike view of God. Children provided natural justifications for how God could or could not bring about an impossible event, though religious justifications increased with age. Additionally, analyses of parent beliefs and religious affiliation indicated different developmental trajectories for children. These findings highlight variations in how the religious context shapes young children’s understanding of the physical world and belief in supernatural causality.

Testing the mixed-blessings model: What is the role of essentialism for stigmatizing attitudes towards schizophrenia?

It is well established that emphasizing a biogenetic etiology of mental health problems in anti-stigma interventions inadvertently increases potentially stigmatizing attitudes. The “mixed-blessings” model suggests that biogenetic explanations and greater stigma are linked by essentialism. The present study tests this hypothesis experimentally. In this online experiment, 367 subjects read either a biogenetic or a psychosocial explanation for the etiology of schizophrenia, followed by a vignette describing an individual who has schizophrenia. Subsequently, we measured (a) causal beliefs on the etiology of schizophrenia (as a manipulation check), (b) the degree of essentialist beliefs (mediator), (c) the extent to which subjects subscribed to assumptions of dangerousness, (d) prognostic pessimism, and (e) desire for social distance. Subjects reported a stronger agreement with the etiology they had been presented. Against our expectations, this did not result in higher levels of stigmatizing attitudes in the biogenetic vignette group. Correspondingly, mediation through essentialism could not be tested. In the psychosocial vignette group, biogenetic causal beliefs were associated with a stronger desire for social distance. Essentialist thinking fully mediated this effect. The evidence we found for the assumptions of the mixed-blessings extended to the psychosocial vignette group only. We explain this by the subjects’ different readiness to subscribe to biogenetic and psychosocial causal beliefs. We argue that the same levels of essentialism between the experimental groups contributed to the equal levels of stigmatizing attitudes. This underlines the fundamental importance of essentialism in stigma, going beyond a role in the psychological effects of biogenetic causal models.

Causal health attributes and beliefs of tobacco-related cancer patients in Assam, India

Purpose People with chronic illness develop their own formulations about the disease and these attributions influence their health beliefs and subsequent health practices. This study explores the causal health beliefs and practices of tobacco-related cancer patients in the state of Assam considering their unique cultural health practices. The study uses Kleinman’s Explanatory Model for an extensive understanding of the patient’s health beliefs about their illness. Methods By adopting Explanatory Sequential Mixed design, 100 participants were interviewed in the quantitative phase of the study followed by 11 in-depth interviews in the qualitative phase. Results The study reveals that, among different factors internal and/or external to an individual, the participants highly attributed their illness to accidental/chance and/or supernatural factors (52%). Also, cancer fatalism was highly prevalent among the participants. Further, the majority of the participants with wrong beliefs, misinformation, and fear of cancer were uncertain about the success of their cancer-specific treatment. These participants were highly dependent on God concerning their future health. Conclusions The study suggests the need for designing cancer-education programmes and spreading mass awareness by engaging both modern and indigenous cancer care providers in addressing the health-seeking behavior and practices of the people of Barak Valley.