Giving support to close others increases affective risk perceptions: longitudinal and experimental studies

Risk perceptions are instrumental in predicting how people will process and react to threats. While social contexts have long been associated with changes in risk perception, whether and which social contexts alter risk perceptions is not well understood. This paper explores one such social context--support-giving--which has previous links to affect, cognition, and behavior, including how threats are processed. Using a tripartite model in which risk perceptions are split between deliberative (logical), affective (emotional), and experiential (lived) assessments, we used two studies, a longitudinal-correlational (Study 1) and experimental (Study 2), to explore whether support-giving relates to and impacts risk perceptions. Findings from Study 1 revealed that support-giving toward a close other at Time 1 was associated with an increase in affective risk perceptions at Time 2. Study 2 clarified the direction of this association, finding that there was an increase in affective and experiential risk perceptions for those randomly assigned to a support-giving condition, as compared to the control. Deliberative risk perceptions did not differ between conditions. Given that affective risk perceptions strongly predict behavior, support-giving may be a promising new avenue by which to inspire preventative behavior.