This paper investigates the role of biased health perceptions as a potential driving force of risky health behaviors. We define absolute and relative health perception biases, illustrate their measurement in surveys and provide evidence on their relevance. Next, we decompose the theoretical effect into its extensive and intensive margin: When the extensive margin dominates, people (wrongly) believe they are healthy enough to “afford” unhealthy behavior. Finally, using three population surveys, we provide robust empirical evidence that respondents who overestimate their health are less likely to exercise and sleep enough, but more likely to eat unhealthily and drink alcohol daily.

本文研究了有偏见的健康观念作为危险健康行为的潜在驱动力的作用。我们定义了绝对和相对的健康认知偏差，在调查中说明了它们的测量方法，并提供了它们相关性的证据。接下来，我们将理论效应分解为其广泛性和密集性边缘：当广泛性边缘占主导地位时，人们（错误地）认为他们足够健康，可以“承担”不健康的行为。最后，我们使用三项人口调查提供了强有力的实证证据，表明高估自己健康状况的受访者不太可能锻炼和睡眠充足，但更有可能每天吃得不健康和喝酒。