Re-framing Roles for Decision-making

The NYT's reports on new research that shows people make risk/benefit decisions differently depending on the role they are asked to assume.

The research was published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. According to the Journal's abstract:

Survey participants imagined themselves in 1 of 4 roles: patient, physician treating a single patient, medical director creating treatment guidelines, or parent deciding for a child.

Preferences for risk-reducing active treatments were significantly stronger for participants imagining themselves as medical professionals than for those imagining themselves as patients.

CONCLUSIONS: Treatment preferences may be substantially influenced by a decision-making role. As certain roles appear to reinforce "big picture" thinking about difficult risk tradeoffs, physicians and patients should consider re-framing treatment decisions to gain new, and hopefully beneficial, perspectives.