Gist Representations and Communication of Risks about HIV-AIDS: A Fuzzy-Trace Theory Approach

Title:Gist Representations and Communication of Risks about HIV-AIDS: A Fuzzy-Trace Theory Approach

Volume: 13 Issue: 5

Author(s): Evan A. Wilhelms, Valerie F. Reyna, Priscila Brust-Renck, Rebecca B. Weldon and Jonathan C. Corbin

Affiliation:

Keywords: Class inclusion, development, fuzzy-trace theory, health, judgment, risk communication.

Abstract: As predicted by fuzzy-trace theory, people with a range of training—from untrained adolescents to expert physicians—are susceptible to biases and errors in judgment and perception of HIV-AIDS risk. To explain why this occurs, we introduce fuzzy-trace theory as a theoretical perspective that describes these errors to be a function of knowledge deficits, gist-based representation of risk categories, retrieval failure for risk knowledge, and processing interference (e.g., base-rate neglect) in combining risk estimates. These principles explain how people perceive HIV-AIDS risk and why they take risks with potentially lethal outcomes, often despite rote (verbatim) knowledge.For example, people inappropriately generalize the wrong gist about condoms’ effectiveness against fluid-borne disease to diseases that are transferred skin-to-skin, such as HPV. We also describe how variation in processing in adolescence (e.g., more verbatim processing compared to adults) can be a route to risk-taking that explains key aspects of why many people are infected with HIV in youth, as well as how interventions that emphasize bottom-line gists communicate risks effectively.

Cite this article as:

Wilhelms A. Evan, Reyna F. Valerie, Brust-Renck Priscila, Weldon B. Rebecca and Corbin C. Jonathan, Gist Representations and Communication of Risks about HIV-AIDS: A Fuzzy-Trace Theory Approach, Current HIV Research 2015; 13 (5) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1570162X13666150511142748