“Don't Tell Me,I Don't Want to Know”: Understanding People's Reluctance to Obtain Medical Diagnostic Information1

Prominent theories of health‐protective behavior predict increasing information seeking as a function of increasing disease severity, yet diagnostic screens for serious diseases are notoriously underutilized. We suggest that in addition to severity, disease treatability impacts people's willingness to submit to medical tests. In two studies, participants were relatively likely to seek a diagnostic test for a disease they believed to be serious and treatable (Study 1) and to avoid a test for a disease they believed to be serious but untreatable (Study 2). Implications for health‐behavior models and persuasive health communication are discussed.