Skin cancer and sun safety health promotion messages may not be getting through because people have a distorted view of how dark their own skin is in its natural state. New University of Otago research has found that people over a range of different skin colours tend to overestimate the darkness of their natural, non-tanned skin. The research involved 300 University of Otago students whose self-reports of their “natural, non-tanned skin colour” were compared to more objective, light-based measurements. Among the findings, 36% of those reporting they had ‘fair skin’ actually fell into the range for ‘very fair skin’, while just over 77% of those believing they were of medium skin colour actually belonged to the ‘fair skin’ category. ‘Olive skinned’ students strongly overestimated, with 71% falling into lighter categories. And only 42% who rated themselves as having dark skin, actually had dark skin. The results are published in the May 2010 edition of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Lead author Dr Tony Reeder, of the University’s Cancer Society Social & Behavioural Research Unit says, “If people have an inaccurate perception of their risk, then they are unlikely to respond appropriately to messages about sun protection, which may help to explain why people continue to get sunburned.”