Effects of Oncologist Communication Style about Bad Health and Oncologist Gender on Emotional Arousal, Irrational Statements, Information Recall, and the Physician-Patient Relationship

Previous research on the effects of oncologist communication style and oncologist gender has relied upon retrospective self-report questionnaires. The present analogue study utilized the Articulated Thoughts in Simulated Situations (ATSS) paradigm to assess the effects of oncologist gender and three communication styles (factual, assertive, and accusatory) on simulated patients' verbalizations of negative and positive affect, irrational statements, information recall, and the perceived oncologist-patient relationship as they were receiving a diagnosis. Participants were 90 undergraduates who were randomly assigned to one of six communication conditions. They listened to an audio recording and imagined they were diagnosed with a fictitious cancer. At designated intervals, they verbalized their thoughts and feelings about what they heard. They also answered questions about the information that was presented and their relationship with the oncologist. Main effects of communication style and oncologist gender were expected. A gender by communication interaction was also expected. Results showed that the expected main effects of communication style on verbalizations of negative affect, positive affect, and irrational statements were not found. However, the main effects of communication style on information recall scores and perceived strength of the oncologist-patient relationship were significant. An assertive style elicited higher information recall scores than an accusatory style. Also, an assertive style and a factual style elicited a stronger perceived oncologist-patient relationship than an accusatory style. The main effect of oncologist gender on verbalizations of negative affect and positive affect, information recall, and perceived strength of the oncologist-patient relationship was not significant. The main effect of oncologist gender on irrational statements was significant, although contrary to the hypothesis: female oncologists elicited more irrational statements than male oncologists. The interaction between oncologist gender and communication style on irrational statements was significant, although contrary to the hypothesis: female oncologists who spoke in an assertive style elicited more irrational statements. Overall, the findings suggest that an accusatory communication style can be detrimental to information recall and the oncologist-patient relationship. Due to mixed support of the hypotheses, future research using the ATSS to investigate effects of communication style and oncologist gender would be beneficial.