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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health

Sec. Radiation and Health

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1561373

Chicken or egg? Attribution hypothesis and nocebo hypothesis to explain somatization associated to perceived RF-EMF exposure

Provisionally accepted
Silvia Ariccio Silvia Ariccio 1*Eugenio Traini Eugenio Traini 1Lützen Portengen Lützen Portengen 1Astrid L Martens Astrid L Martens 2Pauline Slottje Pauline Slottje 3Roel Vermeulen Roel Vermeulen 1Anke Huss Anke Huss 1
  • 1 Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
  • 2 Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, De Bilt, Netherlands
  • 3 GGD Flevoland, Lelystad, Netherlands

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The aim of this study is to understand the temporal relationship between the somatization usually attributed to RF-EMFs, and to evaluate the attribution hypothesis and the nocebo hypothesis in this context. In this longitudinal study, data from the Dutch Occupational and Environmental Health Cohort Study (AMIGO) was analyzed, consisting of a baseline questionnaire collected in 2011 (14,829 participants) and a follow-up questionnaire collected in 2015 (7,904 participants). Participants completed a questionnaire providing information on their health status, perceived environmental exposures, and demographics. Two sets of multiple regressions were conducted to evaluate the two hypotheses. Results show that the attribution hypothesis overall explained symptom reporting in association to perceived RF-EMF base station exposure and perceived electricity exposure more frequently than the nocebo hypothesis. This finding stands out from most of the existing literature, which primarily points to the nocebo effect as the main explanation for somatization in response to RF-EMF exposure.While this does not exclude, in absolute terms, the existence of a nocebo effect, potentially at other time scales, this finding has relevant consequences at the policy making level. The emerging relevance of the attribution hypothesis moves the focus on the discomfort of people with unexplained symptoms and their need to find a plausible explanation for their discomfort.

    Keywords: RF-EMF exposure, EMF, Somatization, diagnosis, Nocebo, Attribution, Perception

    Received: 15 Jan 2025; Accepted: 14 Mar 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Ariccio, Traini, Portengen, Martens, Slottje, Vermeulen and Huss. 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: Silvia Ariccio, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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