GENDER DISPARITIES IN THE ATTRIBUTION OF CARDIAC-RELATED SYMPTOMS - CONTRIBUTION OF COMMON-SENSE MODELS OF ILLNESS

The role of common sense models of heart disease in the attribution of cardiac-related symptoms was examined in a sample of healthy young ad ults (N = 224). Participants were less likely to attribute symptoms to possible cardiac causes for female victims reporting stressful life e vents (M = 5.14) than for female victims without such stressors (M = 6 .82) or for male victims with (M = 6.23) or without (M = 6.48) concurr ent stressors. Cardiac attributions remained lowest for female/high-st ress victims in additional samples of undergraduates (N = 194), commun ity-residing adults (N = 48), and physicians (N = 45), although this o utcome sometimes appeared to reflect additive, rather than interactive , effects. Two final experiments with undergraduate samples (Ns = 48 a nd 60, respectively) indicated that stereotypes associating heart dise ase with male gender may account for gender disparities in the attribu tion of cardiac-related symptoms.