- Design
- Preregistered experimental analogue study, 2×2 video manipulation
- Population
- 349 online adults with moderate somatic symptom burden
- Primary outcome
- Perceived likelihood of serious disease after normal results
- Effect
- Lower perceived risk and less desire for further tests with high warmth and competence
An experimental study in Annals of Family Medicine (21 September) showed 349 online participants with moderate somatic symptom burden a symptom scenario, then a video of a doctor reporting normal test results. The results were identical each time; only the doctor's warmth and apparent competence varied.
Participants rated serious disease as less likely when the doctor showed both high warmth and high competence, and were less keen to seek a second opinion or further tests. The effect worked through how much participants valued the test result itself.
This was a simulation in a young, mostly female online sample, not real consultations. But it supports what many family physicians suspect: a normal result does not reassure on its own, and the way it is delivered decides whether the patient comes back for another test.
- Explain what the test was looking for and what a normal result rules out
- Acknowledge that the symptoms are real before discussing the result
- Show you have considered the worrying possibilities
- Agree a plan for what to do if symptoms change
Why it matters
Failed reassurance drives repeat testing and second opinions, and this suggests it is partly within the doctor's control.
Don't overread it
This was an online simulation with actors, not a study of real patients in real consultations.
Read the rest in the app
You have read your two free briefings this month. The app carries all 27 specialties, every morning, free — and this finding is waiting in it.
Scan to keep reading on your phone. No account needed to start.
Tomorrow morning, before your first patient
One edition a day for family medicine, written by the desk, every claim tied to its paper. Six minutes.
Get the app — free