Table 1.

Patient vignettes

Issue	A healthy-appearing, 38-y-old male [28-y-old female] patient comes to your office for a physical. This is his [her] first appointment with you. He [She] does not have any known prior chronic medical issues. During the patient interview, the patient...	How serious of a problem, on a 1–10 scale?
Alcohol	...acknowledges consuming about 20 alcoholic beverages in a typical week but denies any related physical concerns.	7.8 (1.6)
Marijuana	...acknowledges using recreational marijuana approximately three times per week but denies any related physical concerns.	5.7 (2.3)
Tobacco	...acknowledges engaging in social smoking, consuming ∼15–20 cigarettes per week (2–3 per day), a habit that began at age 18. The patient denies any related physical concerns.	8.2 (1.7)
Sex worker	...acknowledges having had sexual intercourse with sex workers several times in the last year. The patient denies any physical symptoms related to sexual behavior.	8.4 (1.8)
Depression	...acknowledges having intermittent bouts of depression. He completed a PHQ-9 screening tool in your office and scored a 10. He denies suicidal thoughts.	8.2 (1.5)
Firearms	..., who is a parent with two small children at home, acknowledges having several firearms at home.	7.4 (2.5)
Obesity	..., who has a BMI of 31, acknowledges having no regular exercise. The patient denies any physical complaints related to his weight.	7.8 (1.5)
Abortion*	...acknowledges having had two elective abortions in the last 5 y. She denies any physical complaints or complications associated with these procedures. She is not currently pregnant.	5.7 (2.5)
Helmets	...acknowledges commuting to work by motorcycle. He acknowledges rarely wearing a helmet but that he is a safe driver and has never been in a serious collision.	8.4 (1.9)

Italics identify more politicized issues. The rightmost column shows unweighted overall means and SDs on a 10-point scale on which respondents indicated the seriousness of the problem presented in the vignette. Number of observations range from 231 to 233 per item. BMI, body mass index; PHQ-9, Patient Health Questionnaire 9.

^*Indicates a vignette with a female patient rather than a male patient.