The Effect of Perceived Patient Responsibility on Characterological, Behavioral, and Quality-of-Care Assessments

In two experiments, subjects were assigned to one of three conditions in which they read medical profiles that manipulated the patients' degree of responsibility for acquiring an illness. Subjects rated each patient on seven bipolar traits and four measures of likely behavior in a medical setting. Finally, patients were rated as to the quality of medical care that they should receive. In Experiment 1, undergraduate subjects derogated patients perceived responsible for their illness on the personality characteristics, and did not expect them to follow a number of medically related behaviors, in addition, men, but not women, responded that patients responsible for illness onset should receive a lower quality of medical care, particularly for more serious illnesses. Experiment 2 showed that nursing students made negative characterological assessments of patients perceived responsible for their illness and negative inferences as to the likely behaviors these patients would exhibit. Nursing students' ratings of quality of care, however, differed across illness rather than as a function of responsibility, implications of these data for decisions regarding resource allocation and patient-practitioner interactions are considered.