Illusory Correlations in Patient Stereotyping

Abstract

Two experiments document one basis of patient stereotyping: the relative frequency of people’s contact with medical patients. Experiment 1 demonstrated that illusory correlations formed based on the infrequency of target patients and their non-cooperative behaviors. Participants read about two groups of patients with two similar diseases (labelled A and B). One group appeared less often than the other and performed fewer non-cooperative behaviors; however, the proportion of non-cooperative and cooperative behaviors was the same for both groups. Participants overestimated the number of non-cooperative behaviors performed by the infrequently appearing group, evaluated the group negatively and believed that these patients would be unlikely to cooperate in the future. Experiment 2 attempted to address the relationship between illusory correlations and memory for the infrequent group’s non-cooperative behaviors. Implications for how people perceive medical non-adherence in patients with stigmatized medical conditions were discussed.