Depressive Realism and Health Risk Accuracy: The Negative Consequences of Positive Mood

Abstract

We examine the role of level of depression on updating of health-related risk estimates. Participants provided their risk of getting breast cancer before (baseline) and after (follow-up) receiving personalized (experiment 1) or standard (experiment 2) medical risk feedback. Although there were no significant differences in risk estimates at baseline, the follow-up risk estimates indicate that compared to nondepressives, depressives lowered their risk estimates such that they were more accurate or closer to the medical estimates provided in the risk feedback. In contrast to depressives, nondepressives with higher baseline risk estimates did not revise their follow-up risk estimates because they were in a positive mood after receiving the risk feedback.