Whom Do You Trust ?

Whenever we are advised to perform some health-affecting practice we face a question: Is this a worthwhile endeavor?  Always a difficult question to answer, it is especially challenging in this age of information overload.  That is not to say that each decision is equally momentous.  When told that chicken soup will cure your cold, you need not expend much cash, energy, or effort to comply with the advice, and you risk little whether you do or do not follow through.  On the other hand, you readily find Internet printed material and verbal advice to do such things as take or not take a prophylactic aspirin to protect your cardiovascular system. The "correct" answer is not always obvious or uncomplicated.  And depending on your decision, you could enjoy significant health benefits or experience significant health risks.

If the health-oriented information recommended to you is ambiguous, conflicting, or consequential, a number of factors are important to consider.  Let's focus on two central ones framed as a polarity: You can look within yourself to reach a conclusion that seems proper for you, or you can look to trusted other people to determine what they believe is proper.  (Of course, there is no reason that you cannot take your self-generated and others-generated information, compare it, and then decide.)

If you rely primarily on own, self-generated information, whether you act on your decision will be influenced powerfully by your level of self-confidence.  In that case, the research of Richard E. Petty suggests that confidence depends in large part on your sense of personal power.  As all thoughts, decision-relevant thoughts have an affective charge associated with them from the outset.  Those thoughts, in turn, are magnified by one's confidence level, making the positive thoughts more positive and the negative ones more negative.

If you rely primarily on others-generated information, whether you act on your own decision will be influenced powerfully by your faith in their opinions.  Here, the research of Noah J Goldstein, Steve J Martin, Robert Cialdini (2008) is worth considering.  According to them, when faced with information at odds with their own preconception, many people abandon their own view, moving instead toward what they regard as the middle value of their social reference group.  So, having initially believed that she should exercise for one hour per day 5 days per week, if most of those with whom she spoke favored 30 minutes, 2 days per week, she might very well settle on 45 minutes, 3 days per week.

Deciding to begin or to modify a health practice then, can cause us to sift through a welter of information.  And it exposes us to the advantages and disadvantages of relying on own own opinion, the opinions of others, or an amalgam of both.  So, the more you know about your strengths and weaknesses and your reference groups' strengths and weaknesses, the better.  Given those provisos, be mindful that the extent of your self confidence must be balanced against the extent to which you trust yourself and/or your associates in the very health area under consideration.  While there is nothing inherently wrong with choosing based on any of the self, others, or amalgam options, each choice has its own advantages and disadvantages, and each choice is rooted in your own unique personality predilections.

References:

N.J. Goldstein, S.J. Martin, & R. Cialdini (2008). Yes!: 50 scientifically proven ways to be persuasive.  New York: Simon and Schuster.  

R. E. Petty and J. T. Cacioppo (1996).  Attitudes and persuasion: Classic and contemporary approaches.  New York: Westview Press.