I Know That I Know: Online Health Information Seeking, Self‐Care and the Overconfidence Effect1,2

Abstract

The increasing access to online health information and the use of this information for self‐medication or self‐diagnosis can foster a discounting of the epistemic authority of experts, as well as an over‐reliance on laypersons' expertise. However, the emerging cognitive bias—the overconfidence effect—is poorly investigated in the sociological field. This study offers a novel contribution to the role of overconfidence bias in online health information‐seeking behavior and self‐care practices. A cross‐sectional study was conducted through an online survey on a sample of 783 Italian university students. Univariate linear regression and stepwise multiple linear regression analysis were performed on the collected data. The findings suggest that overconfidence and self‐care practices are predictors of health information seeking online. The multiple linear regression model revealed that the association between overconfidence bias and online health information seeking is mediated by self‐care behaviors. Therefore, the overconfidence effect influences health information seeking to the extent that the search for information is aimed at self‐care practices. This study could trigger further research on implementing the overconfidence effect and self‐care in theoretical models of health information seeking.