ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
How Supernatural Belief and Scientific Attitude Influence Individual Cancer Prevention? An Empirical Study from Young Chinese Adults
Provisionally accepted
Qinliang Liu
Hepeng Jia*- School of Communication, Soochow University, Suzhou, China
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The global rise in early-onset cancer incidence underscores the urgent need to understand behavioral determinants of prevention efficacy. This study aimed to examine the fundamental roles of supernatural and scientific beliefs in shaping health beliefs and their conflicting influences in cancer prevention behaviors. Combined with the health locus of control theory (HLOC), a dual-way attitudinal model was developed and tested by a national survey (N = 938) among young Chinese adults. The results indicated that both supernatural and scientific beliefs significantly predicted cancer control beliefs and prevention behaviors. Specifically, Chinese supernatural beliefs negatively predicted cancer fatalism (external HLOC), subsequently reducing cancer prevention behaviors. By contrast, positive scientific attitudes positively predicted cancer prevention behaviors through cancer-controllability (internal HLOC). Furthermore, positive science attitudes mitigated the detrimental effects of supernatural beliefs by reducing cancer fatalism and strengthening cancer-controllability. These findings elucidate underlying factors contributing to ineffective cancer prevention and identify potential pathways for intervention and education, with both theoretical and practical implications were discussed.
Keywords: cancer prevention, young adults, Scientific attitudes, supernatural/religion, Health control beliefs
Received: 23 Sep 2025; Accepted: 14 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu and Jia. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hepeng Jia, hpjia@suda.edu.cn
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