Biased health perceptions and risky health behaviors—Theory and evidence

Patrick Arni, Davide Dragone, Lorenz Goette and Nicolas Ziebarth ()

Journal of Health Economics, 2021, vol. 76, issue C

Abstract: This paper investigates the role of biased health perceptions as a potential driving force of risky health behaviors. We define absolute and relative health perception biases, illustrate their measurement in surveys and provide evidence on their relevance. Next, we decompose the theoretical effect into its extensive and intensive margin: When the extensive margin dominates, people (wrongly) believe they are healthy enough to “afford” unhealthy behavior. Finally, using three population surveys, we provide robust empirical evidence that respondents who overestimate their health are less likely to exercise and sleep enough, but more likely to eat unhealthily and drink alcohol daily.

Keywords: Health bias; Health perceptions; Subjective beliefs; Overconfidence; Overoptimism; Risky behavior; Smoking; Obesity; Exercising; SF12; SAH; BASE-II; SOEP-IP (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D11 D83 D91 I12 I18 P46 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Biased Health Perceptions and Risky Health Behaviors: Theory and Evidence (2020)
Working Paper: Biased Health Perceptions and Risky Health Behaviors: Theory and Evidence (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jhecon:v:76:y:2021:i:c:s0167629621000102

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhealeco.2021.102425

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