社会与工程心理学研究室知识库

全球和中国的健康现状严峻，大量人口处于亚健康等健康匮乏状态。健康行为有利于促进健康提升、改善健康现状，然而大多数人在健康行为上表现不良，且存在不良健康行为问题：人们容易在医疗、保健等健康行为上过分表现，而在均衡饮食、体育锻炼等有利于长期健康的行为上执行不足。因此，解决不良健康行为问题的关键是，让人们在面临健康选择时做出有利且长远的决策。已有研究将健康行为与跨期决策联系起来，从跨期偏好的角度解释人们的健康行为选择，但这些研究仅笼统地关注两者之间关系，未区分不同健康行为在跨期决策性质上的差异，不能很好地在跨期决策的框架下研究健康行为。同时，近年提出的资源匮乏理论从资源匮乏的角度，解释贫穷、忙碌等匮乏对人们行为偏差的影响，但其在健康领域的适用性尚不清楚。因此，本研究尝试从跨期决策的视角理解和归类健康行为，借鉴资源匮乏理论的基本假设，探索了健康资源匮乏对不同种类健康行为偏好及其特征偏好的影响，试图从健康匮乏的角度解释出现不良健康行为偏差的原因。

本研究共计

4 个子研究，均以中国成人样本为研究对象。其中， 研究 1 通过问卷调查，在中国文化情境中 验证了跨期决策视角下健康行为的分类结构。研究1 要求被试评估不同健康行为在努力、时间、健康影响三个特征上的差异。结果发现，不同健康行为在三个特征上存在差异，可基于这三个特征将健康行为分为长期-费力的与短期不费力的两类。研究2 利用公开的数据库数据，通过多层回归建模的方法，探索了居民健康状况与其对短期-不费力或长期-费力的健康行为偏好的相关关系。结果发现，健康匮乏状况与中国居民对两类健康行为的偏好相关：健康匮乏者对长期-费力的健康行为的偏好更弱，对短期-不费力的健康行为的偏好更强。研究3通过组间比较的实验设计，探讨了健康匮乏对同一类健康行为中不同特征偏好的影响。研究3 通过提供不同特征维度占优的选择，观察健康匮乏组与对照组在不同特征维度占优的健康行为中的行为倾向。结果发现，健康匮乏影响对人们对健康行为特征的偏好：在健康行为的努力与时间特征中，健康匮乏者比健康良好者更在乎努力特征，更偏好努力特征占优的选项；但在时间与健康影响特征中，健康匮乏者比健康良好者更在乎时间特征，更偏好时间特征占优的选项。研究4采用了准实验设计，借助2020年新冠肺炎疫情，在健康匮乏的真实环境测量人们的主客观健康匮乏状况，综合探讨了健康匮乏对两类健康行为及其特征偏好的影响。结果发现，存在健康行为类别的效应：与短期不费力健康行为相比，在长期费力健康行为中，个体更在乎努力与时间特征之中的努力特征，偏好努力特征占优选项，且更在乎时间与健康影响特征之中的时间特征，更偏好选择时间特征占优选项。但并未发现健康匮乏与健康行为类别的交互影响，在两类健康行为中，健康匮乏者对健康行为特征的偏好相同。

总之，本研究发现：1）基于跨期决策视角，健康行为可归类为长期-费力的与短期不费力的两类；2）健康匮乏影响对两类健康行为的偏好：健康匮乏者对长期-费力的健康行为的偏好更弱，对短期-不费力的健康行为的偏好更强；3）健康匮乏影响对健康行为特征的偏好；4）在健康匮乏影响对健康行为特征的偏好中，存在健康行为类别的效应。这些结果说明，健康匮乏是造成健康行为偏差的重要原因，证实了资源匮乏理论在健康领域的适用性，为现实生活中健康行为的干预、改善不良健康行为提供了新思路和基础证据。

The health status of China and the world is grim, and many people are in a state of health scarcity, such as sub-health. Healthy behaviors can promote and improve people’s health status. However, most people have poor healthy behaviors and health behavior bias. People are prone to perform health behaviors, such as medical treatment and health care, excessively while under-executing long-term behaviors, such as a balanced diet and physical activity. Therefore, the key to solving the problem of health behavior bias is to enable people to make beneficial and long-term decisions when facing health choices. Previous studies have linked health behaviors with intertemporal decision-making and explained people’s health behavior from the perspective of intertemporal preference. However, these studies only focused on the relationship between the two in general and did not distinguish the differences among different health behaviors in the nature of intertemporal decision-making. As a consequence, they failed to study health behaviors well within the framework of intertemporal decision-making. Recently, resource scarcity theory proposed that many behavioral biases can be explained from the perspective of resource scarcity, such as poverty, lending, and busyness. However, whether resource scarcity theory can apply to the field of health behavior remains unclear. Therefore, this study aims to understand and classify health behaviors from the perspective of intertemporal decision-making. Based on the basic hypothesis of resource scarcity theory, this study attempts to explore the effect of health scarcity on the different categories of health behavior preferences and their characteristic preference and explain the causes of health behavior bias from the perspective of health scarcity.

This study has four sub-studies, all of which are based on Chinese adult samples. Study 1 validates the classification structure of health behaviors from the perspective of intertemporal decision-making using a questionnaire in the Chinese cultural context. Study 1 assesses the differences among different health behaviors from their three characteristics, including effort time and health influence. Results show that differences are observed in three characteristics among different health behaviors. Health behaviors could be classified into “effortful long term pay offs” and “easy immediate pay-offs.” Study 2 explores the correlation between residents’ health status and preferences for the health behaviors of “effortful long term pay offs” or easy immediate pay-offs” by using open database data and multilevel regression modeling modeling. Results show that health scarcity predicts the preference for health behaviors. Those with poor health have a weaker preference for the health behavior of “effortful long-term pay-offs” and a stronger preference for the health behavior of easy immediate pay-offs.” Study 3 explores the effect of health scarcity on preferences for different characteristics in the same type of health behavior by comparing experimental designs between groups. The study provides superior choices in different characteristic dimensions. The study also observes the behavioral preferences of the health-deficient group and the control group in health behaviors dominant in different characteristic dimensions. Results show that health scarcity has an impact on health behavior preference. In terms of the effort and time characteristics of healthy behaviors, those with poor health are concerned more about effort characteristics than those with good health and prefer the option in which effort characteristics prevail. In terms of the characteristics of time and health influence of health behaviors, those with poor health are more concerned about time characteristics than those with good health and prefer the option in which time characteristics prevail.Study 4 adopts a quasi-experimental design to measure people’s subjective and objective health scarcity in a real environment in the context of the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic in 2020. It comprehensively explores the effect of health scarcity on the two types of health behaviors and characteristic preferences. Results show the effects of health behavior categories. compared with the health behaviors of “easy immediate pay-offs”, in the health behaviors of “effortful long-term pay-offs”, Individuals pay more attention to effort characteristics than time characteristics and prefer the option in which effort characteristics prevail. Moreover, they are concerned more about time characteristics than health influence characteristics and prefer the dominant option of time characteristics. However, the results do not show an interaction between health scarcity and health behavior categories. In the two types of health behavior, those with poor health have the same preference for health behavior characteristics.

In summary, this research found the following: 1) From the perspective of intertemporal decision-making, health behaviors can be categorized into two types, namely, long-term and strenuous and short-term and effortless. 2) Health scarcity has an impact on the preference of the two types of health behaviors. People with poor health prefer strenuous health behaviors less and short-term and effortless health behaviors more. 3) Health scarcity can affect the preferences for different health behavior characteristics. 4) Health behavior categories can influence the impact of health scarcity on the preferences for health behavior characteristics. These results indicate that health scarcity is an important cause of health behavior bias, confirming the applicability of resource scarcity theory in the field of health and providing new ideas and basic evidence for the intervention of health behaviors in real life.