Communicating diagnostic uncertainty reduces expectations of receiving antibiotics: Two online experiments with hypothetical patients.

The overprescription of antibiotics due to diagnostic uncertainty and inappropriate patient expectations influence antimicrobial resistance. This research assesses (i) whether communicating diagnostic uncertainty reduces expectations of receiving antibiotics and (ii) which communication strategies minimise unintended consequences of such communication. In two experimental online studies conducted in January and April 2023, participants read a vignette describing a doctor consultation for an ear infection and expressed their expectations of receiving antibiotics, trust in their doctor, rated the doctor's reputation and provided their intention to get a second doctor's opinion.

Understanding and reducing inappropriate antibiotic use in the context of delayed prescriptions.

Objective: Antimicrobial resistance is a global health threat perpetuated by the overprescribing of antibiotics in primary care. One strategy to reduce antibiotic use in this setting is delayed prescribing. However, several psychological factors might undermine its effectiveness.

Pupil dilation during memory encoding reflects time pressure rather than depth of processing.

Under cognitive load theory, time pressure/urgency-induced arousal is a major contributor to pupil dilation during cognition. However, pupillometric encoding studies have failed to consider the possible role of time pressure/urgency effects, instead often assuming that encoding dilations directly reflect encoding strength. To isolate possible encoding strength and time pressure effects, we manipulated levels of processing (deep vs.

The willingness to vaccinate increases when vaccination protects others who have low responsibility for not being vaccinated.

Vaccination provides direct protection for the vaccinating individual and indirect protection for other, unvaccinated individuals via herd immunity. Still, some people do not get vaccinated-either because they cannot (e.g.