Why do people overuse antibiotics?

This event is part of a series of Psychology seminars that regularly occurs during the Autumn and Spring terms.

Global overuse of antibiotics drives antibiotic-resistant infections, contributing to the deaths of five million people every year. To reduce such overuse effectively, we need to better understand why people decide to use antibiotics.

Many people worldwide use antibiotics without a prescription, and, even if they need a prescription, they can often persuade prescribers to give them one. In this talk, Professor Miroslav Sirota will explain these antibiotic decisions using the utility-based signal detection theory (uSDT) framework. When people decide on antibiotic treatment, they try to detect a signal in a situation of diagnostic uncertainty, weighing the risks and benefits associated with the decision, while relying on their knowledge and available information.

Miroslav will then provide an overview of supporting evidence coming from my recent studies on antibiotic expectations. He will organise this evidence according to three uSDT model parameters affecting antibiotic decisions: (i) signal–noise similarity (e.g. diagnostic uncertainty about the nature of the illness), (ii) the prior probability of a signal (e.g. the subjective base rate of prior antibiotic use for a similar illness), and (iii) the payoff structure (e.g. perceived harms and benefits of using or not using an antibiotic). He will then discuss how the framework and the findings help us understand the cognitive mechanisms underpinning antibiotic overuse and inform effective public health strategies that aim to reduce antibiotic overuse.