Helen Colby - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Helen Colby

Social Science Research Network, May 29, 2019

This Article offers empirical data on the extent of family law understanding among Americans when... more This Article offers empirical data on the extent of family law understanding among Americans when it comes to creditors’ rights. Our data, composed of surveys, reveal that people’s perceptions of these rights do not change across states despite different legal regimes, and that people who are divorced have no better knowledge than those who have never been divorced. These original findings have important implications for law and policymakers.

Medical Decision Making, Feb 24, 2023

Background Significant health disparities exist for trans and gender-nonconforming patients, in p... more Background Significant health disparities exist for trans and gender-nonconforming patients, in part caused by a reduced likelihood of seeking health care due to experienced discrimination in health care settings. Increasing inclusivity in patient-provider interactions can decrease barriers to care seeking for these patients, but such advice to providers must be simple to implement and account for potential backlash among certain patient subgroups. Methods In 3 studies, we use online samples to experimentally test patient reactions to 2 methods of provider inclusivity signaling: verbal sharing of the provider’s pronouns and request for the patient’s pronouns (a method frequently suggested in the literature) and the provider wearing a pin indicating their pronouns without verbal sharing or requesting that the patient share their pronouns. Results Study 1 finds that political orientation significantly moderated the effect of pronoun request on patient satisfaction with the visit, P = .003; satisfaction with the doctor, P = .003; and willingness to return to the provider, P = .007, with politically liberal participants being more satisfied and more likely to return when pronouns were requested and politically conservative participants less satisfied and less likely to return. Study 2 replicated these findings and demonstrated that such backlash among conservative participants did not occur when inclusivity was indicated via the provider wearing a pin indicating their pronouns. Study 3 showed that while pronoun pins may be subtle enough to not cause backlash, they are noticed by the target community and increase satisfaction and willingness to return among participants who identify as trans, nonbinary, and genderqueer. Limitations These studies were hypothetical scenario studies run online rather than field studies. Conclusions These results suggest that recommendations for increasing inclusivity should account for potential negative impacts on the practice from more politically conservative patients and that more subtle methods of indicating an inclusive health care environment are likely to be more implementable for practitioners in the field while still positively affecting the target population. Highlights Increasing inclusivity in health care settings by verbally sharing and requesting pronouns can cause backlash and aggression among politically conservative patients. More subtle methods of inclusivity signaling such as providers wearing pins sharing their own pronouns do not have this type of backlash effect and increase satisfaction and willingness to return among non-cisgender patients. Recommendations for increasing inclusivity in health care settings should consider negative reactions from other patient subgroups to ensure recommendations are those providers are likely to be willing and able to implement long term.

Proceedings - Academy of Management, Aug 1, 2022

JAMA, Jul 7, 2010

patient dialysis would lead to any meaningful misclassification of a dialysis unit's anemia manag... more patient dialysis would lead to any meaningful misclassification of a dialysis unit's anemia management practice. We disagree with Zhang et al that our findings are inconsistent with a report that the dialysis chain using the smallest doses of ESAs also had the lowest mortality rates. 1 Our model suggests that centers using ESAs the most aggressively across all hematocrit categories would have increased mortality rates relative to the most conservative centers. Therefore, our results are quite compatible with the cited report. We agree with Dr Auerbach that IV iron is a useful aspect of anemia management. However, we note that a study of 10 169 hemodialysis patients found an 11% increased risk of all-cause mortality and a 12% increased risk of hospitalization in patients prescribed more than 10 vials of iron over a 6-month period compared with patients prescribed no iron. 2 That study cites 5 abstracts reporting associations between iron exposure and adverse events, including all-cause mortality and infection-related outcomes. It is likely true that most of the risk of anaphylaxis comes with use of high-molecular-weight iron dextran, but many other important aspects of IV iron use are not well understood. There is a lack of evidence on the comparative effectiveness and safety of different iron dosing strategies (including bolus vs maintenance dosing) and of the different iron complexes, which have different pharmacokinetic properties. Changes in reimbursement coupled with evidence suggesting that frequent use of iron may increase hemoglobin in patients who do not respond well to ESAs 3 are likely to lead to increasing use of IV iron for anemia management in hemodialysis patients. This makes it increasingly important to continue studying IV iron to identify agents and dosing protocols that maximize its considerable benefits while minimizing possible harms and unnecessary use.

Judgment and Decision Making, 2013

Decision makers often save money for a specific goal by forgoing discretionary consumption and in... more Decision makers often save money for a specific goal by forgoing discretionary consumption and instead putting the money toward the savings goal. We hypothesized that reference points can be exploited to enhance this type of saving. In two hypothetical scenario studies, subjects made judgments of their likelihood to forgo a small expenditure in order to put the money toward the savings goal. In Experiment 1, judgments were higher if the savings goal was presented as composed of weekly subgoals (e.g., save 60perweektobuya60 per week to buy a 60perweektobuya180 iPod). Experiment 2 replicated this finding and demonstrated that the subgoal manipulation increased judgments of likelihood to save money only when the money saved from the foregone consumption would allow the decision maker to meet the weekly subgoal exactly (not under or overshoot it). These results suggest a reference point mechanism and point to ways that behavioral decision research can be harnessed to improve economic behaviors.

Science, Oct 15, 2021

Delivery complications can influence later decision-making

Medical Decision Making, Jul 2, 2015

The effectiveness of a pedometer intervention was affected by manipulating the goals given to par... more The effectiveness of a pedometer intervention was affected by manipulating the goals given to participants and by providing social comparison feedback about how participants' performance compared with others. In study 1 (n = 148), university staff members received a low, medium, or high walking goal (10%, 50%, or 100% increase over baseline walking). Participants walked 1358 more steps per day (95% confidence interval [CI], 729, 1985), when receiving a high goal than when receiving a medium goal, but a medium goal did not increase walking relative to a low goal (554 more steps; 95% CI,-71,1179). In study 2 (n = 64), participants received individual feedback only or individual plus social comparison feedback. Participants walked 1120 more steps per day (95% CI, 538, 1703) when receiving social comparison feedback than when receiving only individual feedback. Goals and the performance of others act as reference points and influence the effect that pedometer feedback has on walking behavior, illustrating the applicability of the principles of behavioral economics and social psychology to the design of health behavior interventions.

PsycEXTRA Dataset, 2009

Decision research has long focused on how we make decisions for ourselves, yet a considerable pro... more Decision research has long focused on how we make decisions for ourselves, yet a considerable proportion of the personal and professional decisions we make are on behalf of others, which we term surrogate decisions. This thesis investigates the psychological processes involved in surrogate decision making. It features a first set of studies which compare financial and medical surrogate decisions and a second which address the complex process of making difficult medical decisions for our loved ones. This thesis makes valuable contributions to the field by providing empirical, theoretical, methodological and practical insights into making decisions on behalf of other people.

Psychological Science, Jun 15, 2015

Decisions about allocation of scarce resources, such as transplant organs, often entail a trade-o... more Decisions about allocation of scarce resources, such as transplant organs, often entail a trade-off between efficiency (maximize total benefit) and fairness (divide resources equally). Three studies using a hypothetical transplant organ allocation scenario examined allocation to groups vs. individuals. Study 1 demonstrates that allocation to individuals is more efficient than allocation to groups. Study 2 identifies a factor that triggers the use of fairness over efficiency: presenting the beneficiaries as one vs. two arbitrary groups. Specifically, when beneficiaries are presented as one group, policy makers tend to allocate resources efficiently, maximizing total benefit. However, when beneficiaries are divided into two arbitrary groups (by hospital name), policy makers divide resources more equally across the groups, sacrificing efficiency. Study 3 replicates this effect using a redundant grouping attribute (prognosis) and finds evidence for a mediator of the grouping effect-the use of individualizing information to rationalize a more equitable allocation decision.

ACR North American Advances, 2014

Social Psychological and Personality Science, Jun 27, 2018

The allocation of scarce public resources such as transplant organs and limited public funding in... more The allocation of scarce public resources such as transplant organs and limited public funding involves a trade-off between equality-equal access and efficiency-maximizing total benefit. The current research explores how preferences shift when allocation decisions involve human lives versus when they do not. Fifteen experiments test this question using a variety of allocation scenarios including allocation of lifesaving medical aid, money, road construction, vaccines, and other resources. The results consistently show an increased preference for efficiency, when the allocation involves saving human lives, and equality, when the allocation involves outcomes with other consequences. We found no preference shift when stakes were manipulated in allocations where lives were not on the line, suggesting that the effect cannot be explained by lifesaving resources simply being higher stakes. These findings suggest a unique preference for efficiency for allocations involving life-and-death consequences that has implications for designing and conveying public resource allocation policies.

Annals of Behavioral Medicine, Mar 31, 2021

Background COVID-19 related policies in the USA can be confusing: some states, but not others, im... more Background COVID-19 related policies in the USA can be confusing: some states, but not others, implemented mask mandates mid-pandemic, and states reopened their economies to different levels with different timelines after initial shutdowns. Purpose The current research asks: How well does the public's perception of such policies align with actual policies, and how well do actual versus perceived policies predict the public's mask-wearing and social distancing behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic? Methods We conducted a preregistered cross-sectional study among 1,073 online participants who were representative of the U.S. population on age, gender, and education on Monday-Tuesday, July 20-21, 2020. We asked participants which locations they visited in the past weekend, and their mask-wearing and social distancing behaviors at each location. We also measured participants' beliefs about their state's policies on mask mandate and business opening and obtained objective measures of these policies from publicly available data. Results Perception about the existence of mask mandate was 91% accurate in states with a mask mandate but only 46% accurate in states without one. Perception of state reopening level did not correlate with policy. It was the perceived but not actual state mask mandate that positively predicted both mask-wearing and social distancing, controlling for state COVID-19 cases, demographic factors, and participants' numeracy and COVID-19 history. Conclusions The public's perception of state-level mask mandates erred on the side of assuming there is one. Perception of reopening is almost completely inaccurate. Paradoxically, public perception that a mask mandate exists predicts preventive behaviors better than actual mandates.

Publisher, Nov 1, 2020

The default effect has been identified as a powerful tool to influence behavior; however, the cur... more The default effect has been identified as a powerful tool to influence behavior; however, the current studies demonstrate that consumers dodge the effects of healthy defaults by selecting away from the healthy default environment, thereby reducing its effect. Two studies with real consequences and three hypothetical scenario studies in restaurant settings demonstrate that healthy defaults promote healthy food choice in the moment, but consumers choose to put themselves in environments with unhealthy defaults over those with healthy defaults. That is, healthy defaults negatively impact sales and willingness of consumers to return to the restaurant that offers them. Study 1 provides initial evidence that a healthy default reduces sales of the product compared to a less healthy default in a real gift shop. Study 2 uses an online survey with real consequences and demonstrates that participants prefer to receive meal kits from a company with unhealthy defaults over one with healthy defaults. Studies 3-5 use hypothetical scenarios to demonstrate the tendency for consumers to dodge healthy defaults. Study 3 shows that a healthy default can drive away future sales. Study 4 demonstrates that advertising a healthy default reduces interest in visiting the restaurant; that is, advertising healthy defaults drives away firsttime sales. Finally, Study 5 shows that this dodge effect is robust in a between-subject manipulations using a wellknown brand. The results demonstrate that consumers dodge healthy defaults by migrating to environments where unhealthy defaults are in place.