Engaging in unhealthy behaviors (e.g., smoking, drinking) and not engaging in healthy ones (e.g., exercising, consuming fruit and vegetables) are both relatively prevalent among individuals despite the available information about their risks for health. People’s perception of an event’s time course can be used to gauge their risk perception for that event thus casting light on any possible misperception and suggesting directions for health-promoting interventions. This study investigates people’s perception of the time of onset of 5 noncommunicable diseases (e.g., “having high blood pressure”) associated with 4 health-related behaviors: Smoking, drinking, exercising, and eating fruit and vegetable. Participants from Italy (N = 214) and the UK (N = 151) gave onset time estimates of how long they thought it would take for 5 noncommunicable diseases to occur in the life of an 18-year-old person who starts or stops adopting those health-related behaviors. Results showed that participants who rated the noncommunicable diseases as more likely to themselves perceived the onset time of these diseases as more temporally proximal. Participants who were more afraid of developing the noncommunicable diseases estimated their onset time as delayed.

尽管有关于他们健康风险的可用信息，但从事不健康行为（例如，吸烟、饮酒）和不从事健康行为（例如，锻炼、食用水果和蔬菜）在个体中都相对普遍。人们对事件时间进程的感知可用于衡量他们对该事件的风险感知，从而揭示任何可能的误解并为促进健康的干预措施提出方向。本研究调查了人们对与 4 种健康相关行为相关的 5 种非传染性疾病（例如，“患有高血压”）发病时间的看法：吸烟、饮酒、锻炼和吃水果和蔬菜。来自意大利（N  = 214）和英国（N = 151) 给出了他们认为开始或停止采取这些与健康相关的行为的 18 岁人的生命中发生 5 种非传染性疾病需要多长时间的发病时间估计值。结果表明，认为非传染性疾病更有可能发生的参与者认为这些疾病的发病时间更接近时间。更害怕患上非传染性疾病的参与者估计他们的发病时间推迟了。