Behavioral Factors in Medical Prescribing

Wagner, Zachary E.

Student Work

Behavioral Factors in Medical Prescribing

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Cognitive biases are present in all people, and as such inevitably influence professionals in their career-oriented decisions. This project involved a survey designed to identify 5 areas of bias, within the context of medical prescribing. The study as a whole aimed to identify whether or not any of the biases were expressed in the data, concretely demonstrating how cognitive bias can affect decisions in medicine. The first 3 biases that were tested included the self-serving bias, conformity bias, and obedience to authority bias. The fourth bias was incrementalism and the final bias tested involved perceptions of nuances in medical dogma through euphemism. From the data analyzed, findings indicate that specific biases were expressed in at least 3 of the 5 tested. Furthermore, the data from the other 2 questions displayed patterns suggesting other unintended types of psychological biases occurring. As a whole, the study showed concrete indications for the occurrence of bias in the first 3 questions, specifically the self-serving bias, conformity bias, and obedience to authority bias . The data also suggest bias-related psychological phenomenon occurring for the 4th and 5th question.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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