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The Impact of Positive Thinking, Gender, and Empathy on Social Attributions for Cancer Outcomes

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Abstract

How observers perceive cancer and cancer patients can have a tremendous influence on a patient’s illness experience. Within the current study, an attribution-based theoretical framework was applied and the social phenomena of positive thinking (PT) was considered, in an attempt to understand how people view and respond to others’ cancer experiences. The roles of same-gender social perceptions and individual differences in empathy were also explored. Undergraduate college students (N = 233) read a hypothetical blog of a cancer patient, who described one of three scenarios which varied PT exposure. Participants then responded to measures assessing the patient’s effort exerted toward, control over, and responsibility for the cancer outcome, as well as how much they blamed the patient for the outcome and their willingness to help the patient. Exposure to PT enhanced effort attributions, control perceptions, and perceptions of responsibility for the unsuccessful cancer outcome. Men attributed more effort, control and responsibility to the male patient than women attributed to the female patient, but women were more willing to help the patient than men were. Results also indicated that empathy may diminish the impact of PT on social perceptions of cancer in terms of blame and willingness to help.

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  1. University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, USA

    Kelly M. Jones & Joelle C. Ruthig

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  1. Kelly M. Jones
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  2. Joelle C. Ruthig
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Correspondence to Kelly M. Jones.

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Jones, K.M., Ruthig, J.C. The Impact of Positive Thinking, Gender, and Empathy on Social Attributions for Cancer Outcomes. Curr Psychol 34, 762–771 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-014-9288-4

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