Doc, what would you do if you were me?

Psychologists Rocio Garcia-Retamero and Mirta Galesic ask doctors a question that probably has run through most patients’ heads: What would you do, if you were me? And, in new research in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, they find that doctors tend to prescribe safer, more conservative treatment for patients than they would for themselves:

Many doctors made more conservative decisions about medical treatments for their patients than for themselves (i.e., they frequently selected a safer medical treatment). This result is robust as doctors often made similar decisions for patients they knew personally and for patients whose identity they did not know. At the same time, these patients often made riskier decisions about medical treatments for themselves than their doctors did for them. Doctors, therefore, showed substantial self–other discrepancies in medical decision making and did not make decisions that reflected their patients’ preferences.

Part of this, the authors conclude, might have to do with doctors’ worry about the legal consequences of prescribing a more risky treatment. Read the full piece here.