Panel Discussion 17: The Health Decision Making SIG presents: The Difficulty of Communicating Scientific Uncertainty: The Complex Case of Alcohol and Cancer

Risk communication is rarely straightforward; communicating cancer risk, in particular, can be riddled with uncertainty (e.g., lack of evidence, conflicting evidence, complexity of causal factors). Communicating uncertainty can increase risk perceptions but also negative emotional responses, increase or decrease the perceived credibility of the information or its sources, and increase avoidance of decision making. Consequently, communicators may struggle to balance the most precise or direct language with softer or overly-simplified messaging that may elicit weaker outcomes or misinterpretations.

Communicating the causal link between alcohol consumption and cancer risk is a particularly complex and timely example of this challenge. Although this link has been established for nearly two decades, there are growing efforts in the U.S. to inform the public about this risk (e.g., the 2025 Surgeon General’s Advisory on alcohol and cancer risk), efforts that clearly need to be informed by extant literature.

Sponsored by the Health Decision-Making and Communication SIG, our panel aims to showcase the perspectives of several experts to motivate a discussion of how to better understand the effects of expressed uncertainty in alcohol-cancer risk communication. Dr. Jackelyn Payne (National Cancer Institute) will first highlight the potential impact for warning labels to convey information about the alcohol-cancer risk, before Dr. Emma Jesch (National Cancer Institute) characterizes “don’t know” responders to alcohol-cancer awareness questions from nationally representative surveys, disentangling misbeliefs from lack of knowledge. Drs. Jennifer Hay (Memorial Sloan Kettering) and Amy McQueen (Washington University) will discuss possible intervention approaches for these “don’t know” responders. Next, Dr. Kara Wiseman (University of Virginia) will discuss the role of clinicians in communicating this risk in clinical settings and Dr. Jennifer Taber (Kent State University) will discuss defensiveness and emotions activated by alcohol-cancer risk messages. Finally, Dr. William Klein (National Cancer Institute) will contextualize the state of the research within the policy and funding landscapes, integrating lessons learned and ideas for moving forward. Attendees will leave with deeper knowledge of designing and studying communications that effectively convey both the magnitude of risk and the strength of existing evidence related to the alcohol-cancer link and beyond.

Chair - Jackelyn Payne, PhD, MPH, National Cancer Institute
Presenter - Emma Jesch, PhD, MPH, National Cancer Institute
Presenter - Jennifer Hay, PhD, FSBM, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Presenter - Amy McQueen, PhD, FSBM, Washington University, School of Medicine
Presenter - Kara Wiseman, PhD, MPH, University of Virginia
Presenter - Jennifer Taber, PhD, Kent State University
Presenter - William Klein, PhD, National Cancer Institute