The Reason for Health project investigates the psychological roots of questionable health practices: non-adherence to medical recommendations (NAR) and the use of traditional/complementary/alternative medicine (TM/CAM) that are not evidence-based. The project is based on an integrated multidisciplinary approach from cognitive, personality, social and health psychology. It is planned in five stages that inform one another and enable cross-validation of results obtained via multiple research techniques.
The main objective of the project is to examine whether an irrational mindset (a system of irrational thinking and beliefs) lead to questionable health practices, as well as to determine whether these practices are rooted in personality and cognitive styles as psychological dispositions that relate to these beliefs. In addition, interventions that could impact irrational beliefs and lead to health behavior change will be tested in the project. Engaging stakeholders in conversations about the use of alternative, complementary and traditional medicine and non-adherence to official health recommendations in Serbia, and informing them about project findings and suggestions for their practical application is also planned in the project.
The project offers a novel approach to studying health behaviors, focusing on their deeper psychological determinants, related to central thinking and belief systems, personality traits, and thinking styles. This will provide theoretical and methodological advances in studying health behaviors: (1) measuring adherence to official medical advice and use of traditional, complementary and alternative medicine practices to establish whether their interrelation and whether the use of practices unsupported by evidence can lead people astray from effective medical treatment (2) using a multi-method approach will allow for a systematization of traditional, complementary and alternative practices, informed by a content analysis of media reports, as well as their prevalence in a representative sample, (3) behaviors will be studied using an experience sampling method and behavioral indices will be devised, which is considered the golden standard in studying behavior. The results of both experimental and correlational studies will serve as an empirical basis for two broad categories of policy interventions: (1) those aiming to reduce the irrational beliefs and thus impact health behaviors, and (2) flagging (un)intentional strengthening of irrational beliefs through public communication.
The project will result in seven articles and two novel instruments; one measuring the use of complementary, alternative, and traditional medicine, and the other measuring adherence to official medical recommendations. In terms of social impact, the project will engage stakeholders in policy and communication discussions, including public health decision-makers, health workers and their professional organizations, international health organizations, and patient organizations. The end users of the project are all citizens of the Republic of Serbia. The results will be presented to the public via various media outlets and social media, workshops and lectures, and through the Festival of science and other activities, in order to increase awareness and initiate discussions about health decision-making.
The project is led by the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, with Faculty of Special Education and Rehabilitation, University of Belgrade, and the Faculty of Media and Communication, Singidunum University as partner institutions. The project duration is three years (January 2022-25). The principal investigator is dr Iris Žeželj, associate professor at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade.
The project team is part of the Laboratory for Research of Individual Differences, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade. The members of the project team are specialised in different areas of psychology (personality, social, cognitive, health, and clinical), and are in different phases of their research career. Four researchers are doctoral students. Team members from the Faculty of Philosophy include Professor Goran Knežević, Full Professor, dr Goran Opačić, Associate Professor, dr Ljiljana Lazarević, Senior Research Associate, dr Danka Purić, Assistant Professor, dr Zorana Zupan, Research Associate, dr Sanda Stanković, Research Associate, dr Marko Živanović, Research Associate, Aleksandra Lazić, Research Assistant, Milica Ninković, Research Assistant, Petar Lukić, Research Assistant, and Marija Petrović, Junior Research Assistant.
News about the project are available at the project website, Facebook page and Twitter profile of the project. All materials, codes and databases will be publicly available in line with Open Science practices (https://osf.io/gxtqz/).
The project is funded by the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia, within the program “Ideas” ( grant #7739597).
