ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of perceived risk in health-protective behavior. In models of health behavior, perceived risk for disease occupies the role of distal motivator for health-protective action. We explore the origins of perceived risk, its role in health behavior models, and the linkages between perceived risk and health-related behavior. We intend that the chapter provide a broad picture of the literature on risk perception in health psychology. We have chosen to contextualize the chapter with research on perceived risk for cancer as a putative determinant of cancer prevention and cancer screening. The body of research on the role of perceived risk in cancer detection and prevention is extensive. Moreover, cancer prevention and cancer screening encompass primary and secondary prevention of disease from a public health perspective, that is, primary prevention to both prevent disease onset and promote health, and secondary prevention to detect disease in its earliest state before it becomes symptomatic. Although our empirical research examples are in the main limited to cancer-related behaviors, our presentation is completely general from the perspective of theory and measurement of perceived susceptibility and its empirically supported role in health-protective behavior.
