An Experimental Investigation of Treatment Decisions under Ambiguity and Conflict

Introduction: Effective risk communication is essential for medical professionals to assist patients to make informed decisions. However, risk communication can be challenging as patients receive ambiguous and conflicting information. Objectives: This study aimed to examine how uncertainty influences individuals’ perceptions and preferences and interacts with message framing in a medical treatment decision scenario. Methods: The present study included a large representative sample of Australians (N = 805). A randomized experiment was conducted presenting a scenario about hypothetical COVID-19 treatment alternatives with varying uncertainty and framing in treatment information. Results: The results showed that conflicting information and loss framing had deleterious effects on participants’ willingness to take a treatment and trust in the sources providing the information, compared with information that was precise, ambiguous, or in a gain frame. The effects could be stronger among participants who are risk averse, anxious, and native language speakers. Conclusion: The findings highlight that patients may be more averse to a treatment option and reduce their trust in medical professionals when they are provided with ambiguous information and particularly when information that conflicts with other sources including other medical professionals. It is important for medical professionals to be aware of other information patients have sourced that may conflict with information provided by the medical professionals during the consultation and to assist patients with high levels of risk aversion and anxiety in their decision making. Highlights: Conflicting information and loss framing had deleterious effects on participants’ willingness to take a treatment.Conflicting information and loss framing also reduced participants’ trust in the sources of the information.The deleterious effects were stronger among participants who were native language speakers and were risk averse and anxious.