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Updated: Jun 8, 2026
14:32
Using Visual and Narrative Methods to Achieve Fair Process in Clinical Care
Published on: February 16, 2011
Facework and uncertain reasoning in health communication
Stefania Pighin1, Jean-François Bonnefon
1CNRS and University of Toulouse, France. pighin@univ-tlse2.fr
Patient Education and Counseling
|October 5, 2010
Summary
Healthcare providers should use caution when communicating uncertain news. Uncertainty terms may be misinterpreted, especially with bad news, potentially leading to patient misunderstandings.
Area of Science:
- Linguistics
- Psychology
- Healthcare Communication
Background:
- Healthcare professionals frequently convey both positive and negative prognoses to patients.
- Uncertainty terms are often used to qualify these prognoses.
- Sociolinguistic analysis reveals varied interpretations of these terms.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how patients interpret uncertainty terms used in medical prognoses.
- To determine if interpretations differ based on whether the news is good or bad.
- To explore the impact of these interpretations on patient causal inferences.
Main Methods:
- Two studies were conducted involving causal inference.
- Study 1: French university students (N=50).
- Study 2: Italian pregnant women (N=532).
Main Results:
- Participants reported higher confidence in conclusions drawn from bad news compared to good news.
- The interpretation of uncertainty terms varied depending on whether they qualified good or bad news.
Conclusions:
- Findings highlight the importance of careful communication of prognostic uncertainty by healthcare professionals.
- Hedging terms with bad news may be perceived as "sugar-coating," leading to unintended patient inferences.
- Awareness of these potential misinterpretations is crucial for effective patient-provider communication.
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