Abstract
This paper empirically investigates biased beliefs about the risks of smoking. First, it confirms the established tendency of people to overestimate the lifetime risk of a smoker to contract lung cancer. In this paper’s survey, almost half of all respondents overestimate this risk. However, 80% underestimate lung cancer deadliness. In reality, less than one in five patients survive five years after a lung cancer diagnosis. Due to the broad underestimation of the lung cancer deadliness, the lifetime risk of a smoker to die of lung cancer is underestimated by almost half of all respondents. Smokers who do not plan to quit are significantly more likely to underestimate this overall mortality risk.
Acknowledgements
I thank the editors Hendrik Juerges and Joachim Winter, anonymous referees, Don Kenkel, Jing Li, Dean Lillard, Petter Lundborg, Jeff Niederdeppe, Kip Viscusi, Gert G. Wagner and participants at the 2016 EuHEA conference in Hamburg for very helpful comments and suggestions. I also thank Beining Niu and Kaylin Yu for copyediting this paper. I take responsibility for all remaining errors in and shortcomings of the article. Generous support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; “German Science Foundation”, WA 547/5-1) and the Open Research Area in Europe for the Social Sciences (ORA-10-36) is gratefully acknowledged. The research reported in this paper is not the result of a for-pay consulting relationship. Cornell does not have a financial interest in the topic of the paper which might constitute a conflict of interest.
Article note
This article is part of the special issue “Empirical Health Economics” published in the Journal of Economics and Statistics. Access to further articles of this special issue can be obtained at www.degruyter.com/journals/jbnst.
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Appendix. Descriptive statistics
Mean | Std. Dev. | Min. | Max. | N | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A. Perceived Cancer Risks | ||||||
Smoker Lifetime Lung Cancer Risk | 31.0505 | 26.3858 | 1 | 100 | 1860 | |
Overestimation Lung Cancer Risk | 0.4361 | 0.4962 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
Underestimation Lung Cancer Risk | 0.2424 | 0.4287 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
5-Year Lung Cancer Survival Rate | 4.5478 | 2.1847 | 1 | 10 | 1860 | |
Overestimation Survival | 0.8011 | 0.3993 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
Calculated Smoker Total Mortality Risk | 0.1888 | 0.1875 | 0.05 | 0.95 | 1860 | |
Overestimation Total Mortality Risk | 0.4527 | 0.4979 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
Underestimation Total Mortality Risk | 0.2306 | 0.4214 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
B. Smoking information | ||||||
Smoker | 0.3553 | 0.4787 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
Never Smoker | 0.3769 | 0.4847 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
Ex Smoker | 0.2677 | 0.4429 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
#Cigarettes Smoked Yesterday | 5.2301 | 8.8637 | 0 | 60 | 1860 | |
Heavy Smoker (>15 cigarettes) | 0.1978 | 0.3984 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
Don’t Plan to Quit | 0.0779 | 0.2682 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
Plan to Quit | 0.1656 | 0.3718 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
Unlikely to Quit | 0.1403 | 0.3474 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
Addicted | 0.0290 | 0.1679 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
C. Other health behavior | ||||||
Daily Exercise | 0.1823 | 0.3862 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
No Sports | 0.2629 | 0.4403 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
#Drinks Yesterday | 0.8946 | 2.0332 | 0 | 27 | 1860 | |
BMI | 26.5481 | 5.8487 | 13 | 70 | 1860 | |
D. Risk aversion and discount rates | ||||||
Risk Tolerance | 5.0145 | 2.1596 | 0 | 10 | 1860 | |
Risk Averse | 0.3645 | 0.4814 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
Risk Loving | 0.2715 | 0.4448 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
Discount Rate min. 10 % | 0.2274 | 0.4193 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
Discount Rate min. 20 % | 0.2102 | 0.4046 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
Discount Rate min. 30 % | 0.1860 | 0.3892 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
Discount Rate>10 % | 0.6237 | 0.4846 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
C. Socio-demographics | ||||||
Female | 0.5731 | 0.4948 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
Age | 45.09 | 13.59 | 18 | 86 | 1860 | |
Married | 0.3645 | 0.4814 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
Annual Gross Household Income | 6.4435 | 2.8871 | 1 | 11 | 1860 | |
#HH Members (11 categories) | 2.1435 | 1.0771 | 1 | 13 | 1860 | |
Full-Time Employed | 0.4747 | 0.4995 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
8 Years of Schooling | 0.0790 | 0.2699 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
Master‘s Degree | 0.3274 | 0.4693 | 0 | 1 | 1860 | |
Life Satisfaction | 6.6484 | 1.9854 | 0 | 10 | 1860 |
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