Abstract

When people suffer symptoms, one of the first things they do is get in touch with others in their referral network. Some distinctive characteristics of patients may have an impact on how lay referral network advisors interpret the complaints they experience and how they act. In this regard, we conducted an experimental study (N = 142, 60% women) to examine whether and how some patients’ features, such as stereotypical traits («feminine» vs. «masculine ») and gender («woman» vs. «man»), impact the lay referral network advisors’ interpretation of symptoms, the recommendation they give to undergo health screening, and the supportive behavioral intentions they are willing to adopt. Our results showed that when feminine stereotypical traits are present, people have a greater propensity to attribute symptoms to psychological rather than organic factors, to favor more psychological screenings than physical ones, and to be less inclined to support patients. Furthermore, results showed that feminine stereotypical traits affect the type of recommendations as well as supportive behaviors via the mediating role of the psychological symptom etiology. Patient gender had no impact on perceivers’ reactions. The key conclusions, limitations, and future directions are discussed.