Information Avoidance in the Context of Mental Health: Applying the Planned Risk Information Avoidance Model.
Depression is among the most common mental health conditions worldwide. Despite the availability of effective treatments, many individuals delay or avoid seeking help. One important, yet underexplored, factor contributing to this treatment gap is information avoidance. Especially in the early stages of depression, the decision to avoid health information may hinder symptom recognition, self-management, and timely access to care. Therefore, the present study applies and refines the planned risk information avoidance (PRIA) model to explain depression-related information avoidance. The refined model was tested in a cross-sectional online survey (N = 471) among individuals currently experiencing depressive symptoms. The refined PRIA model accounted for 54.8% of the variance in avoidance intention, with attitudes toward avoidance and avoidance-related subjective norms serving as the strongest predictors of avoidance intention. Furthermore, cognitive load and anticipated regret over seeking information were found to be positively related to avoidance. These findings highlight the importance of affective and cognitive predictors and suggest that addressing social norms, attitudes, and regret over seeking may be key to reducing information avoidance and narrowing the mental health treatment gap.