Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Feb 20, 2023
Date Accepted: Apr 8, 2024
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
The Influence of Physical Attractiveness and Gender on Patient Preferences in Online Doctor Consultations: The Moderating Effects of Disease Severity and Qualification Information
ABSTRACT
Background:
With the development of information technology and the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, digital health service, telemedicine, and online health consultations are playing an increasingly important role in people’s lives.
Objective:
The present research examines the effect of healthcare providers’ physical attractiveness on patients’ preference for online doctor consultations. We also investigate the moderating role of disease severity (high vs. low).
Methods:
Drawing on the sexual attribution bias theory (SAB), three experiments were employed.
Results:
This research found that patients tend to choose attractive doctors of the opposite sex but are less likely to choose attractive doctors of the same sex. Additionally, our studies revealed that such an effect is more prominent when the disease severity is high. Furthermore, the influence of gender stereotypes is mitigated in both the high and low disease severity conditions when service providers’ qualification information is present.
Conclusions:
This research contributes to the literature on medical information systems research and sheds light on what information should be displayed on online doctor consultation platforms.
Citation
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