Effect of health news consumption on unrealistic optimism toward cancer risk

There have been many studies examining unrealistic optimism and its predictors. However, few studies investigated how health information consumption and communication channels are related with unrealistic optimism. The present study extended discussion of unrealistic optimism to include media use variables such as health news consumption and health information seeking. The study found that experience, perceived control, unhealthy behavior, and demographic variables such as age and gender were associated with unrealistic optimism. Furthermore, while information seeking was negatively associated with unrealistic optimism, health news consumption was found to be positively associated with unrealistic optimism, which is contrary to the generally perceived efficacy of health news coverage. The third-person effect was suggested as a potential explanation of this finding.