Аннотация:This study focuses on two problems of cancer patients: uncertainty and anxiety. The significance of fellow‐patients in coping with uncertainty and anxiety was studied by means of a questionnaire which was completed by 418 patients. The results show that patients who experience uncertainty prefer to address themselves to experts for information. The need for social comparison with fellow‐patients increases as information available from experts diminishes. For social comparison patients prefer fellow‐patients perceived as equals because they are perceived as most informative. Furthermore, it appears that patients who perceive others as instrumental in reducing uncertainty show a greater need for social comparison as uncertainty increases. Fellow‐patients are generally perceived as more informative as more uncertainty is experienced. With increasing anxiety the significance of fellow‐patients for evaluation of this anxiety proves to increase. Only at a very high level of anxiety does this significance diminish greatly, presumably because the interaction has negative affective consequences.
