Impact of News Portrayals of Physicians as Vulnerable on the Public's Evaluation and Trust in Physicians Under Different Involvement Levels: Quantitative Study.

Background: News portrayals of physicians, especially in China, often depict them as vulnerable-overworked, with inadequate compensation, or as victims of violence. These portrayals may send mixed signals to the public, yet their impact remains underexplored. Understanding their impact is essential for informing media strategies and improving physician-patient relationships.

Objective: This study investigated how portrayals of physicians as vulnerable influence public evaluations of their competence, warmth, morality, and overall trust and considered the moderating effects of involvement (ie, hospital visit frequency).

Methods: Four studies were conducted. Study 1 (N=492) examined the effects of daily exposure to vulnerable portrayals, and study 2 (N=710) experimentally exposed participants to vulnerable portrayals to directly investigate the causal relationship between exposure and evaluations with involvement as a hypothesized moderator. Study 3 (N=565) manipulated situational involvement using an imagination task, whereas study 4 (N=436) embedded involvement-enhancing content into news articles to improve ecological validity.

Results: Study 1 revealed that among individuals with low or moderate involvement, greater exposure to vulnerable physician portrayals in everyday life predicted more favorable overall evaluations of physicians (low involvement: B=0.11 and P=.04; moderate involvement: B=0.20 and P<.001). No significant effect was found among high-involvement individuals (P>.68 in all cases), suggesting an inverted U-shaped moderating effect of involvement. Study 2 supported this pattern-vulnerable portrayals had no significant impact among individuals with low or high involvement (t₇₀₂<0.49 in all cases; P>.15 in all cases) but had marginally positive effects on individuals with moderate involvement (t₇₀₂=1.67; P=.10; d=0.26). Notably, individuals with superhigh involvement (ie, those in hospital settings) evaluated physicians more negatively following vulnerable portrayals (t₇₀₂=2.49; P=.01; d=0.44). Given that nearly 80% of the general population reports low to moderate hospital visits, which is the positive moderating effect range for involvement, studies 3 and 4 targeted this group and tested whether manipulated situational involvement could enhance the effects of vulnerable portrayals. In studies 3a and 3b, participants in the high-situational involvement condition evaluated physicians more positively in the vulnerable portrayal group than in the control group (3a: t₄₀₁=2.71, P=.007, d=0.37; 3b: t₁₅₄=3.48, P<.001, d=0.93), with no effects under low-involvement conditions. Study 4 confirmed that involvement-enhancing vulnerable portrayals elicited more favorable evaluations compared to the control group (t₄₃₃=3.14; P=.002; d=0.37). Across all 4 studies, overall evaluation significantly predicted trust in the medical profession (B≥0.38 in all cases; P<.001 in all cases), supporting the hypothesized mediation pathway.

Conclusions: The findings reveal a complex relationship between news portrayals of vulnerable physicians and public perceptions moderated by involvement. These results have practical implications for leveraging media to increase public trust and improve physician-patient relationships.