 Information Distortion in Physicians’ Diagnostic JudgmentsOlga Kostopoulou, J. Edward Russo, Greg Keenan, Brendan C. Delaney and Abdel Douiri Medical Decision Making, 2012, vol. 32, issue 6, 831-839 Abstract: Background: Information distortion suggests that people change the evaluation of new information to support an emerging belief. The present study was designed to measure the extent to which physicians distort incoming medical information to support an emerging diagnosis. Design: Data were collected via an anonymous questionnaire. The experimental group (102 physicians) read 3 patient scenarios, each with 2 competing diagnoses. Physicians first read information that favored 1 of the 2 diagnoses (the “steer†). They then rated a series of neutral cues that favored neither diagnosis. At each cue presentation, respondents rated the extent to which cues favored either diagnosis and updated the strength of their diagnostic belief. After the neutral cues in the third scenario, respondents rated cues that opposed the initial steer. A control group (36 physicians) rated all the cues in random order and not within scenarios, thus providing unbiased baseline ratings for calculating distortion in the experimental group. Results: Distortion was statistically significant ( P Keywords: cognitive bias; diagnostic reasoning; information distortion; confidence; commitment; experience (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:medema:v:32:y:2012:i:6:p:831-839 Access Statistics for this article More articles in Medical Decision Making |
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