Un faible espoir de guérison est-il toujours une bonne chose ?

An individual psychologically adapts more easily to a deterioration in her health when she has no hope of recovery than when she has a weak chance. By modeling adaptation as a decline in the reference point and using the general utility function proposed by K?szegi and Rabin [2006], where multiple reference points correspond to possible health levels, I examine under what conditions an individual prefers the certainty of a definitive degradation of her health, which facilitates her psychological adaptation, to a low probability of healing which prevents it. This helps to better understand some health choices and preferences that are otherwise difficult to explain.