Abstract
Cancer information in the media often contains ambiguous, conflicting, or contestable knowledge, which may lead to the cultivation of cancer fatalism. Many believe cancer fatalism poses a significant barrier to cancer prevention and detection behaviors in the population. This meta-analysis synthesized empirical results from 100 studies regarding the associations between cancer fatalism and four categories of communicative and behavioral correlates: (a) media exposure, (b) cancer beliefs, (c) cancer prevention and detection engagement, and (d) cancer information management. Our findings show that cancer fatalism is positively linked to TV exposure and negatively linked to radio or Internet exposure. Cancer fatalism is also positively associated with information avoidance and negatively associated with cancer detection behaviors. This study demonstrates the nature and magnitude of the relationships between cancer fatalism and its antecedents or outcomes and offers useful insights for future investigation and theoretical development in understanding the role of cancer fatalism in communication.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 83-111 |
| Number of pages | 29 |
| Journal | Communication Research |
| Volume | 51 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Feb 2024 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© The Author(s) 2023.
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- Communication
- Language and Linguistics
- Linguistics and Language
Keywords
- cancer fatalism
- cancer information
- health communication
- meta-analysis
