Absolute and comparative risk assessments: evidence for the utility of incorporating internal comparisons into models of risk perception.

Numerous health behavior models have emphasized absolute risk perceptions as prominent predictors of future behavior and intentions, but more recent research has shown that people also attend to risk information. While most research highlights (social) comparisons as the primary way people contextualize risk, it is also possible that people use comparisons, such as comparing their current risk to their past risk (temporal comparisons) or comparing their risk for one health threat to their risk for another health threat (dimensional comparisons). The current research sought to examine differences in absolute, external, and internal comparative risk perceptions across a variety of health threats.