Communicating normal test results that reveal no abnormalities isn’t always enough to ease a patient’s worries. In this study, researchers asked 349 participants to imagine having gastrointestinal symptoms and a relative recently diagnosed with bowel cancer. Participants then watched one of four videos in which a physician delivered the same identical normal test results. In every video, the physician provided identical clinical advice, but her communication style varied in warmth and competence. Physicians conveying high warmth made eye contact, smiled, and used collaborative language, while physicians expressing low-warmth folded their arms and avoided eye contact. High-competence physicians sat upright and delivered precise explanations, whereas low-competence physicians fidgeted, used filler words, and searched through patient files. Participants who saw a physician high in competence rated the likelihood of a serious disease, including bowel cancer, lower, reported less emotional concern, and expressed less desire to seek another physician’s opinion or to undergo a colonoscopy. Patients were inclined to question the validity of the diagnostic information if the physician showed low competence compared with high competence, and also to a lesser extent if the physician showed low warmth compared with high warmth.
Why It Matters: The findings show that a physician’s behavior directly influences how patients evaluate diagnostic information and suggest that high warmth and competence when communicating normal test results may help patients worry less.
Influence of Physician Behaviors on How Patients Interpret Normal Test Results
Corresponding Author: Tobias Kube, PhD, and Anna Seewald, PhD
Funding Support: Funded by a Junior Research Grant from the RPTU University of Kaiserslautern-Landau
The Annals of Family Medicine
21-Sep-2026