Normative beliefs about factors that affect health and longevity

Since the release of the Surgeon General's report, Healthy People, the general public has been barraged with health information and advice by the popular media. Accordingly, this article introduces a method for examining the public's beliefs about the importance of behavioral risk factors associated with health and longevity. The factorial survey approach--a technique appropriate for studying normative beliefs--seems uniquely suited to measuring the degree of public consensus regarding complex social phenomena. Data collected using this experimental vignette methodology suggest that there is much public agreement about the sources of good health. Information described in hypothetical vignettes about smoking, body weight and alcohol consumption are judged most important in promoting health and longevity even when controlling for other behavioral factors such as exercise activity, diet, amount of rest, stress, personality type, and coping strategies. The implications of these findings are briefly discussed.