Hypothetical Questions Research Articles

Abstract B39: Family history of ovarian cancer and health care-seeking behavior: Does having a family history prompt women to seek health care professional advice?

Abstract Background: Few studies have examined the relationship between ovarian cancer (OC) family history (FH) and awareness of symptoms. Women with an FH may differ from those without an FH in their knowledge, awareness, attitudes, beliefs, and health care-seeking motivation with respect to potential OC signs/symptoms. We examined whether having an FH of OC prompted women to seek health care professional advice. Methods: We analyzed data from 2016 FallStyles survey, conducted among women aged ≥18 years recruited from Growth from Knowledge KnowledgePanel®, a probability-based sample representative of the U.S. population (response rate 78.8%). For women reporting a FH of OC, we examined responses to a hypothetical health care-seeking question: “If you began experiencing any of the following medical symptoms and it was not normal for you, when would you contact a doctor or other health professional?” Only women who indicated they would not seek care from a doctor for all of the listed symptoms in the survey were excluded (n=28). Data were weighted to match the U.S. Current Population Survey proportions for age, race/ethnicity, education, and other demographic characteristics. Analyses were performed with SAS 9.3 and SAS-callable SUDAAN 11. Results: Of the 1,759 respondents, most were non-Hispanic white (64.3%), married (58.5%), between the ages of 25 and 64 (68.0%), had at least a high school education (58.5%), and lived in a metropolitan area (84.8%). About 1.9% reported being of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. About 10.1% indicated having an FH of OC. Of these women, 30.1% also had a first degree relative with breast cancer. Women with an FH of OC were more often aware of signs/symptoms of ovarian and other gynecologic cancers, particularly symptoms of early satiety [29.7 (95% CI 21.9, 38.9) vs. 16.4 (95%CI 14.3, 18.8), p<0.05], unexplained bloating [44.2 (95% CI 35.4, 53.4) vs. 29.9 (95%CI 27.2, 32.8), p<0.05], and vaginal itching [19.0 (95% CI 12.5, 27.8) vs. 8.1 (95%CI 6.5, 10.0), p<0.05], compared to women without an FH. Women with an FH of OC more often reported feeling “very or somewhat worried or concerned” about getting OC [35.5 (95% CI 26.8, 45.3) vs. 17.4 (95%CI 14.9, 20.1), p<0.05] compared to women without an FH. There were no statistically significant differences in beliefs and attitudes about OC between women with vs, without an FH of OC. Women with an FH experiencing some gynecologic symptoms, like “unexplained vaginal bleeding” and “vaginal itching,” were more likely to seek care immediately (within 2 weeks or less). Overall there were no statistically significant differences in urgent health care-seeking behavior between women with an OC FH vs. without for gastrointestinal symptoms. Conclusion: While women with FH appeared more aware of symptoms, this did not translate to prompt health care seeking, particularly for gastrointestinal symptoms in our dataset. Providers may want to stress the importance of timely care, as well as determine a specific surveillance plan for their patients with an OC FH. Citation Format: Sun Hee Rim, Julie S. Townsend, Mary Puckett, Sherri L. Stewart. Family history of ovarian cancer and health care-seeking behavior: Does having a family history prompt women to seek health care professional advice? [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Advances in Ovarian Cancer Research; 2019 Sep 13-16, 2019; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2020;26(13_Suppl):Abstract nr B39.

Risk behaviour and people's attitude towards public authorities – A survey of 2007 UK and 2013 German floods

This paper reports on people's preparedness, perception and behaviour of flood risk as well as their trust and attitude towards public authorities in the flood context. Two areas were studied: Catcliffe, situated near Sheffield in the United Kingdom, which was severely flooded in 2007, and Passau in Bavaria, Germany, which was hit by an extreme flood in 2013. We conducted a survey in both study areas and collected data on risk perception, people's perceptions of their own preparedness, their use of information, trust in the authorities and evacuation behaviour. We found that although there were few significant differences between the two case studies, risk perception and risk preparedness was significantly higher in Catcliffe than in Passau and during the flood emergency people in Catcliffe see themselves acting more self-protectively (78%) than in Passau (42%). In both places, people who had direct experience of floods had a higher level of risk perception and preparedness compared to those with no previous experience. In both Catcliffe and Passau, trust in government was fairly low. Nevertheless, when people were asked the hypothetical question how they would react to a public evacuation order, almost 70% in Catcliffe and 80% of respondents in Passau would take immediate action to evacuate. Interestingly, the answer was similar when we asked the conflicting question whether the respondents would follow a public evacuation order although their family recommended not doing so.

CULTURE OF PEDAGOGICAL INTERACTION IN EDUCATIONAL PROCESS MANAGEMENT

In the publication the necessity of comprehensive educational establishment teachers’ mutual systemic and structured interaction with the school administration has been raised The need for teachers’ professional proficiency development and collaboration with methodological work doers for an efficient educational process provision are especially emphasized, as well as urgency for new productive cooperation models has been marked out, which, providing pedagogical interaction, gives an opportunity to increase in a qualitative way pupils’ achievements, the study process outcome improvement in the education content during the time of changes or transformation. The authors of the article raise a hypothetical question whether interaction among the subjects involved in intervention actually exist and how efficient it is, in order to move towards common goal implementation and qualitative development of pupils’ outcomes in the discourse of multistage cooperative relationships. Observing and analysing the course of educational establishments’ different pedagogical and management processes, features have been detected that the aspects of interaction culture are uncertain, which reveals challenges for search of a new approach to collaborative models.

Exploring Prostate Cancer Patients' Interest and Preferences for Receiving Genetic Risk Information About Cancer Aggressiveness.

The number of cases of aggressive prostate cancer is increasing. Differentiating between aggressive and indolent cases has resulted in increased difficulty for the physician and patient to decide on the best treatment option. Due to this challenge, efforts are underway to profile genetic risk for prostate cancer aggressiveness, which may help physicians and patients at risk for developing aggressive prostate cancer to select an appropriate treatment option. This study explores patients’ interest in receiving genetic results, preference for how genetic risk information should be communicated, and willingness to share results with adult male first-degree relatives (FDRs). A nine-item survey was adapted to assess their beliefs and attitudes about genetic testing for prostate cancer aggressiveness. In addition, participants (n = 50) responded to hypothetical scenarios and questions associated with perceived importance of risk disclosure, preferences for receiving genetic risk information, and sharing of results with FDRs. As the hypothetical risk estimate for aggressive prostate cancer increased, patients’ willingness to receive genetic risk information increased. This study found that most patients preferred receiving genetic risk education in the form of a DVD (76%), one-page informational sheet (75%), or educational booklet (70%). Almost all patients (98%) reported that they would be willing to share their test results with FDRs. The results of this study highlight prostate cancer patients’ desire to receive and share genetic risk information. Future research should focus on assessing the long-term benefits of receiving genetic information for prostate cancer patients and implications of sharing this information with FDRs.

Organic wheat products and consumer choice: a market segmentation analysis

PurposeThis paper examines determinants of consumer interest in organic versions of wheat products by analyzing differences in selected factors among groups of consumers, distinguished by their likelihood of purchasing organic wheat products. The analysis is performed for bread and cookies to examine whether the findings are different for virtue and vice food categories.Design/methodology/approachA consumer survey was conducted across the western United States in 2017. Latent class modeling is used to identify groups of “very likely,” “likely” and “unlikely” consumers of organic wheat products, based on preferences for organic wheat products and attitudes toward organics in general.FindingsConsumer preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for organic foods depend on product type. Additionally, significant differences are found across consumer groups—regardless of product type—in the importance they place on labels and product characteristics, WTP, reasons for (not) purchasing organic products and consumption limitations.Research limitations/implicationsThe group of organic consumers may be underrepresented in the sample. In addition, since actual behavior was not observed—respondents provided only stated preferences or responses to hypothetical questions—the results should be interpreted carefully.Originality/valueFew studies have examined preferences for organic wheat products across consumer groups. This study is also the first to examine the connection between wheat/gluten intolerance/avoidance and preference for organic versions of wheat products. Finally, this study adds to the limited literature on consumer preferences for organic virtue and vice food products.

Health practitioners' recognition and management of postpartum obsessive-compulsive thoughts of infant harm.

The postpartum period has been associated with elevated rates of onset ofobsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) among women, with a prevalence of 2-9%. Postpartum OCD is often characterized by recurrent, unwanted, and highly distressing thoughts, images, or impulses of deliberate infant harm. This study investigated health practitioners' recognition of, and clinical management strategies for, postpartum obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS). Ninety-four perinatal health practitioners from a range of disciplines and professional backgrounds completed a survey comprised of a hypothetical case vignette and questions eliciting their responses to a clinical presentation of postpartum infant harming obsessions. Almost 70% of participants did not accurately identify OCS within the case. Furthermore, the majority of practitioners endorsed at least one contraindicated clinical management strategy likely to aggravate postpartum OCS. Accurate recognition of OCS was associated with the selection of fewer contraindicated strategies. Some aspects of practitioner training and experience were associated with correct OCS identification. These findings underscore the need for targeted, interdisciplinary education to improve the detection and management of women experiencing postpartum OCS.

Uptake of a preventive care consultation offered to clients of a community mental health service.

Preventive care to address client chronic disease risks is not frequently provided in community mental health services. Offering clients an additional preventive care consultation has been shown to increase client receipt of such care. The ability of this approach to have a beneficial impact at the population level is however dependent on its level of acceptability and uptake among clients. No studies have previously reported these outcomes when the additional consultation is universally offered to all clients of a community mental health service. To address this evidence gap, this descriptive study was undertaken to determine community mental health clients' (1) reported acceptability, in principle, of such a model of care, (2) of those who were offered the additional consultation, the level of uptake, and (3) clinical and socio-demographic characteristics associated with uptake. Participants were clients of one community mental health service in Australia. Data were collected in 2017 by telephone interviews and study records. Data from three distinct participant sub-groups are reported. In response to a hypothetical question, 79.3% of participants (n=157) agreed that an offer of an additional preventive care consultation would be acceptable (Aim 1). Of the participants who were offered such a consultation (n=264), 37.8% took up the offer (Aim 2); and no clinical or sociodemographic characteristics were significantly associated with uptake (Aim 3). Findings support the feasibility of this model of care. However, further research is needed to identify barriers to uptake, and effective strategies to enhance consultation uptake. Trial registration: ACTRN12616001519448.

Will it really happen? Disambiguating of the hypothetical and real “Next Wednesday's meeting” question in Mandarin speakers

Previous research has consistently shown that Mandarin speakers tended to adopt the Moving Time perspective when addressing the “Next Wednesday's meeting” question. Using the revised paradigm, Experiment 1 found that Mandarin speakers showed no preference for either the ego-moving perspective or the time-moving perspective when reading the single verb “移动(move)” which lacks a precise spatial meaning, suggesting that the temporal ambiguity of the probe is rooted in the directional neutrality of the verb. Experiment 2 proceeded to use this ambiguous phrase to investigate whether Mandarin speakers’ responses to the hypothetical probe are predicative of the rescheduling decisions they would make in real life. The results indicate that people's temporal reasoning in real life contexts can dramatically diverge from their thinking in hypothetical scenarios because people tend to put off the meeting until a later time to ease the inconvenience in real rescheduling management practice. Furthermore, the correlations between temporal perspective preference and individual-differences measures were only found for the hypothetical-condition samples. However, by providing real contextual information available to participants when responding to a hypothetical question—thereby reducing the need for mental simulation—we brought people's responses into concordance with their answers in real situations (Experiment 3). This is the first experimental demonstration that hypothetical disambiguation studies, while a valuable contribution to our understanding of time cognition, fail to capture the most salient motivational force shaping actual temporal thinking because of the decontextualized nature.

Beyond asking ‘should’ and ‘why’ questions: Contextualised questioning techniques for moral discussions in moral education classes

ABSTRACT The discussion of moral dilemmas has long been a teaching strategy for moral education. However, the questioning techniques teachers use to lead moral discussions are not fully understood. With reference to a collaborative teaching research project on a values education video-story, this study explored the authentic practice of teacher questioning in moral education classes. Data were collected in a Hong Kong primary school through lesson observations, interviews, document reviews and field notes. Teachers used three techniques when leading moral discussions: posing hypothetical questions, asking role-switching questions and playing devil’s advocate. Collectively, these three techniques helped to enhance students’ thinking. The study suggests that teachers’ questioning in moral discussions can be seen as a contextualised activity that involves the analysis of the key characters, plot points and moral values embedded in the story throughout the processes of curriculum planning and teaching. Teacher questioning strategies offer directions for future studies of moral discussions.

Commentary on Strickland et al. (2020): Do commodity purchase tasks provide clinically meaningful indices of motivation to consume drugs?

Drug purchase tasks have the potential to measure clinically meaningful between- and intra-individual differences in strength of motivation to use drugs. These differences may guide decisions about degree of risk and need for treatment. Alcohol and drug purchase tasks are brief self-report measures that are modeled after laboratory drug self-administration paradigms used to quantify the strength of drugs as reinforcers, also known as drug demand. Individuals complete 10–20 hypothetical questions that ask how many standard units of a drug they would purchase and consume across a range of prices. Their responses are then used to generate three relatively distinct indices of strength of desire or motivation to use drugs that are central to theoretical and diagnostic models of addiction, but are not routinely collected as part of clinical assessments. First, the amount of the drug the individual would purchase/use if the drug was free (referred to as demand intensity) is collected; secondly, the greatest drug expenditure across the task items is collected (referred to as Omax, or output maximum). For example, purchasing five drinks priced at $10 would result in a $50 expenditure, which might be an individual's peak expenditure value. Thirdly, the rate of decrease in consumption as a function of increases in price (i.e. price sensitivity or elasticity of demand) is collected. A number of studies have demonstrated that alcohol and cigarette purchase tasks provide reliable and valid assessments of individual differences in these demand parameters. These differences then predict change in level of use over time and are acutely responsive to laboratory manipulations 1, 2 and clinical interventions 3-5. Strickland et al. 6 extend this literature with their timely and rigorous meta-analytical summary of the smaller but growing body of literature examining illicit drug purchase tasks. A relative challenge with drug purchase tasks is the lack of standardization of drug doses and varieties compared to alcohol standard drinks. This challenge may impact the accuracy of the specific quantities purchased more so than the validity of demand parameters as indicators of elevated risk for relapse or high-risk consumption. Strickland et al.’s results are generally consistent with the alcohol purchase task literature 7 and suggest that individual differences in demand show consistent medium effect size associations with cannabis and cocaine use and problems. One important conclusion of this meta-analysis, also consistent with the alcohol purchase task literature, is that demand intensity and Omax may be more clinically relevant indices of strength of motivation or problem severity than demand elasticity. An important research direction is to determine the extent to which drug purchase tasks have the potential to provide information beyond that offered by standard clinical measures of actual recent consumption in the same way that alcohol purchase tasks have. Given that there are myriad contextual factors that influence one's recent drinking and drug use (e.g. availability of drugs and alcohol for those who are underage or in an environment that prohibits use), purchase tasks may provide informative data on the likelihood of future consumption that could be useful in determining change in degree of clinical risk and need for intervention services. For example, an individual may report a desire to consume large amounts of an opiate if it were available or to drink at a level that could lead to a blackout, even if neither behavior occurred recently due to external constraints. Willingness to spend large amounts of money on drugs also indicates a level of motivation for use that may portend stable or increasing drug use over time, even if recent drug use levels are relatively low. Conversely, the presence of relatively low drug demand for an individual with high levels of recent drug use may suggest an impending reduction in drug use due to a shift in motivation or environmental context. Future research is needed to evaluate the utility of drug purchase tasks as dynamic indices of motivation that are responsive to both value enhancing stimuli (negative affect, drug and social context cues) and value reducing stimuli (treatment, next-day responsibilities, cognitive/visceral manipulations such as episodic future thinking or mindfulness 8). Alcohol demand can reduce immediately following an intervention and the extent of the reduction predicts subsequent changes in use 9, suggesting the potential clinical utility of these very brief measures for guiding drug use treatment planning and stepped-care decisions. Given that the availability and price of illicit drugs may fluctuate more than alcohol, and that self-reports of actual illicit drug use may expose individuals to legal or occupational sanctions, hypothetical drug purchasing scenarios may have unique utility in gauging strength of desire to use drugs. None.

South East Common Sky Initiative Free Route Airspace - implementation aftermath

In a short period since South-East Axis Free Route Airspace (SEAFRA) and Slovenian Austrian Cross-Border Free Route Airspace (SAXFRA) were established, during 2018 these two Free Route Airspace (FRA) areas operationally merged into South East Common Sky Initiative Free Route Airspace (SECSI FRA). Nowadays, SECSI FRA represents a joint venture with the aim of sustainable future development of European Air Traffic Management (ATM). It’s a good example of regional cooperation since it includes stakeholders from six adjacent states and four Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs). Also, successful deployment of SECSI FRA have led to the creation of one of the largest areas with applicable FRA concept. Therefore, that represent a major step towards achieving a 2022 plan - implementation of FRA concept across whole Europe. This research aims to assess deployment effects of SEAFRA, SAXFRA and SECSI FRA and based on quantitative research it provides information on hypothetical question how did implementation of South East Common Sky Initiative Free Route Airspace (SECSI FRA), and its earlier versions - SEAFRA and SAXFRA, reflected on the performances at South East Axis in terms of airspace complexity. In addition, this research is based on the computation of real data obtained from Performance Review Unit (PRU) and it covers period from 2014 till end of 2018. Lastly, deployment impacts have been analysed and compared in relation to other European ATM network’s performances and presented throughout this research paper.

Atmosphere where hypothetical questions may or may not expand clients' rich responses: An investigation based on verbatim data

Atmosphere where hypothetical questions may or may not expand clients' rich responses: An investigation based on verbatim data

Hypothetical question and its potential

Hypothetical question and its potential

Rehearsing Revolutions: The Labor Drama Experiment and Radical Activism in the Early Twentieth Century by Mary McAvoy

Reviewed by: Rehearsing Revolutions: The Labor Drama Experiment and Radical Activism in the Early Twentieth Century by Mary McAvoy Paige A. McGinley REHEARSING REVOLUTIONS: THE LABOR DRAMA EXPERIMENT AND RADICAL ACTIVISM IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY. By Mary McAvoy. Studies in Theatre History and Culture series. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2019; pp. 266. For decades, a politically and pedagogically innovative theatrical form flourished in the United States, although far from any urban center. Thousands of actors, writers, and designers participated, although few had any training to speak of. Numerous plays, skits, scenes, and musical numbers were written, but many of these scripts and scores are now lost. Mary McAvoy’s detailed and thoughtful study, Rehearsing Revolutions, offers both an accounting and a careful assessment of the work of labor drama as it was practiced in labor colleges (adult-education institutions designed to help build the labor movement) around the country during the interwar period. All too often this theatrical tradition has fallen through the cracks, but McAvoy’s timely and important book is a bulwark against forgetting. As she underscores, makers of labor drama often emphasized process over product; whether or not the staged works demonstrated aesthetic “merit” was beside the point. McAvoy is careful to distinguish this understudied labor drama from the “adjacent” and more robustly analyzed workers’ theatre of the same period, emphasizing the “production-oriented” quality of the latter (3). As a pedagogical activity popularized in workers’ education institutions during the interwar period, labor drama invited workers to stage the social and economic problems they faced in their lives, generating a shared sense of struggle and an opportunity for problem-solving and collective action. Courses and recreational activities in dramatics functioned alternately as entertainment, community-building exercises, political training ground, and mode of knowledge production. McAvoy adeptly demonstrates the evolution of labor drama from its union-building functions in the Progressive era to its “radically politicized projects” of the 1930s (ibid.). In its careful delineation of these transformations, Rehearsing Revolutions argues against painting all of interwar drama with one broad brush, showing how the relationships among art, activism, pedagogy, and politics were made and remade during a consequential period. Another important implication of McAvoy’s research is one for the field: labor dramatics’ cultivation of embodied knowledge (an approach informed by John Dewey’s theories of art and experiential education) prefigures the framing of “performance” as both object and method. Following an orienting first chapter, McAvoy dedicates each subsequent chapter to the practice of labor drama at a single institution for workers’ education and along the way trains the reader’s attention on key figures and innovators of the form. Chapter 2 looks at labor drama’s beginnings under the leadership of Doris Smith at Portland Labor College. Brookwood Labor College, the focus of chapter 3, was the most prominent labor college of its time, thanks in part to its geographic location just outside of New York City. Labor drama there was led by Hazel MacKaye, who was the daughter of actor-director-impresario Steele MacKaye and who, McAvoy demonstrates, had a remarkable career as a theatre artist and suffrage activist. McAvoy next makes a regional shift, turning her attention to labor dramatics in Southern workers’ education programs, including Hollace Ransdell’s curriculum at the women’s Southern Summer School (chapter 4), Zilphia Horton at the Highlander Folk School (chapter 5), and Lee Hays at Commonwealth College (chapter 6). Because white supremacist fears of interracial contact and of communist influence were mutually reinforcing, surveillance of workers’ education in these Southern institutions was enhanced. How enthusiastically could dramatics advance a radical agenda before attracting negative attention from the conservative AFL or from the FBI? These were not hypothetical questions: both Highlander and Commonwealth were targeted by local community members as well as by FBI investigations that temporarily shuttered the former and permanently closed the latter. This intimidation continues: in March 2019, the main building of the Highlander Center (reconstituted in a new site after the original school’s 1957 closure) was destroyed by fire, with a white power symbol found amid the rubble. The fact that most of these programs thrived under woman leaders is, McAvoy...

Hypothetical questions from the point of view of clinical practice

Hypothetical questions from the point of view of clinical practice

Discussion

Discussion

The A Word: Academic Appeals in Public Law Challenges

1. Judging is a practical profession. A judge is employed to resolve real disputes between real people. For this reason, judges are wary of delving into academic or hypothetical legal questions whe...

Seeing a Work of Art Indirectly: When a Reproduction Is Better Than an Indirect View, and a Mirror Better Than a Live Monitor.

Visiting a museum and seeing an original artwork can be a special experience. We use a survey and a set of hypothetical questions to explore how such experience would be affected by changes in how the artwork is seen. In a first study, participants imagined that they had traveled to see a painting that they particularly like. They discover that it is impossible to directly see the original painting. Three alternatives are offered: seeing an optical reflection (using a mirror), seeing a video screening (a closed-circuit camera), or seeing a reproduction. In all cases, it is made clear that the size, brightness, and resolution will match that of the original. In addition, these options could be within the same room as the original, in the room next door, or in a different building. Results show that physical distance did not affect significantly the responses. However, there was an overall preference for seeing a reproduction as opposed to an optical or digital image. Contrary to the idea that the original is always superior to a copy, many people felt that a direct view of a copy is a preferable experience than an indirect view. The second study was focused directly on the comparison between a mirror and a monitor. Here we highlighted the fact that for the mirror light coming from the mirror originated from the painting. Data were collected in Britain and in China. In both cases, there was a clear preference for the mirror over the monitor.

Cyberformalism: Histories of Linguistic Forms in the Digital Archive. Daniel Shore. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018. Pp. xxii+293.

Not only does this book contain at its heart a strong provocation that humanities scholars should rethink, by expanding their sense of, how poetic language comes into being; it also lives up to that provocation by offering evidence that cyberformalism generates novel results. Shore’s third, fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters provide lucid examples of the insights that can derive from cyberformalist methodology. By “cyberformalist methodology” the author means a methodology that searches out linguistic forms that are only now becoming visible to researchers thanks to advanced search capabilities and proliferating digital corpora. To demonstrate this, Cyberformalism’s third chapter minutely documents classical, Italian, and anglophone precursors to the opening words of Wordsworth’s two-part Prelude of 1799: “Was it for this … ?” The fourth chapter historicizes the phrase “act as if” as a cultural thought experiment in linguistic form: How does fiction relate to the real? The fifth chapter documents an epistemic shift from the real to the hypothetical in Imitatio Christi literature. In particular, Shore chronicles a seventeenth-century transition in discussions of how to follow Christ as a model of virtuous living. Across this archive, questions transition from the realis to irrealis mood. More specifically, they move from examining what Christ did to querying what Christ would do. After presenting a litany of examples, Shore richly theorizes this transition as the experience of historicity made manifest in the language of spiritual guidance. Put simply, Christ’s life no longer felt as proximate in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and so a hypothetical and contextual question replaced a factual one. Among others, epistemologists and theorists of fiction will feast on this chapter.

Factors Widening the Gap between Hypothetical and Actual choices—Empirical Evidence from the Japanese Medical Insurance Market—

Abstract This study examines the consistency in risk aversion between hypothetical and actual choices in medical insurance. Utilizing a unique survey in which individuals in Japan are asked about their perception of a hypothetical necessary amount for hospitalization benefits and the actual insurance contract amount at the time of hospitalization, the study identifies that the gap between the hypothetical and actual domains is not constant. Even between two similar domains of hospital benefits selection, the gap is found to vary depending on respondents’ anxiety about future medical expenses, their level of financial literacy, and other personal attributes such as age and occupation. The results of this study strongly suggest a need for exercising caution when using the degree of risk aversion obtained by hypothetical questions, questionnaire surveys, and experiments to predict actual behavior.