How Do You Know That? The Epistemology of Consumer Health Decision Making under Conditions of Risk-Benefit Conflict

Abstract

Consumers are confronted with conflicting health information in the form of risks and benefits on a regular basis. One way to understand how different consumers handle the challenge of this conflicting information is by considering consumers' epistemic beliefs, that is, their beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing. In two studies, it is shown that both measured and manipulated epistemic beliefs similarly influence consumer assessments of conflicting risk–benefit health information through two epistemic dimensions—texture (simple or complex) and variability (stable or dynamic). Moderated mediation findings indicate that those who were presented risk–benefit information about health-related products and diets that were perceived as being less (more) familiar had a lower (greater) likelihood of using the product or following the diet through the mediators of thinking about both the risks and the benefits involved, for several of the moderating variability and texture epistemic beliefs. The contribution of this research is to show how epistemic beliefs can differentially frame and inform consumer perceptions and evaluations of conflicted health information.