Avoidance Denial Versus Optimistic Denial in Reaction to the Threat of Future Cardiovascular Disease

Abstract

Two distinctly different denial-based threat orientations (avoidance denial and optimistic denial) were examined using a message about the future risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) for young adults. Participants (N = 101) completed measures of denial-based dispositional threat orientations, current eating, comparative risk, and objective risk for CVD. They then read a high-threat message about CVD and rated their reactions of threat, denial, and worry. One month later, eating patterns in the past month were assessed. Both types of dispositional denial processes were associated with more self-distancing denial, but showed distinctly different, sometimes opposite, patterns of relationships with perceptions of threat, worry, and optimistic self-risk for CVD. In addition, the two denial-based processes were driven by different factors. The implications of these two denial-based threat orientations for the development of theory on denial and health messages, as well as the design of messages to change behavior, are discussed.