Exploring How Accountability Affects the Medical Decisions We Make for Other People

Abstract

In the event that a patient has lost their decision-making capacity due to illness or injury, a surrogate is often appointed to do so on their behalf. Research has shown that people take less risk when making treatment decisions for other people than they do for themselves. This has been discussed as surrogates employing greater caution for others given the accountability they are faced with. We tested the prediction that making accountability salient reduces risk-taking for others relative to the self by manipulating the information shown to participants while they made treatment choices. One group was asked to focus on the consequences for the recipient’s family, another on the legal implications of their decisions, and another was not given additional information. Participants reduced their risk-taking for others compared to themselves, irrespective of the condition they were in. Although participants in each condition reported thinking about these factors to different extents, there were no clear differences in risk-taking between groups. However, we did find that, across all participants, thinking about legal consequences reduces risk-taking. We suggest that future research investigates how the effect of thinking about accountability on surrogate choices is mediated by feelings of accountability, in order to further examine the explanations suggested in the literature.

Is Your Restaurant Worth the Risk? A Motivational Perspective on Reviews’ Rating Distribution and Volume

“…With consistent results from two studies, our work reveals a significant moderating role of intrinsic/extrinsic motivation in individuals’ risk-taking orientations in response to online review performance, and this effect appears immune to the size of dining parties. Although studies have suggested that making purchase decisions for others tends to undermine one’s decision autonomy, which leads to risk-averse choices due to a greater level of perceived accountability and anticipated blame and negative outcomes (Aaker & Lee, 2001; Batteux et al, 2019; Wu & Lee, 2016), our findings have underscored the importance of dining motivation in driving individuals’ risk tolerance in restaurant decision making regardless of the dining group sizes. As indicated in research released by OpenTable, dining occasions (e.g., purely eating out, a business meal, or a date night) reflect diners’ consumption goals and motivations, which informs diners’ behavior and what they want from visiting a restaurant (Hon, 2015).…”

Management of Fingertip Injuries: A Survey of Opinions of Surgeons Worldwide

“…In our study, although most surgeons' would treat their patients' fingertip injury similarly to how they would treat their own fingertip injuries, several studies have demonstrated that people behave differently when they have are faced with a decision they have to make for themselves versus for another person. 24,[27][28][29][30] Surgeons may have felt more comfortable about the choice of treatment when choosing for themselves, given that they have more circumstantial information about themselves than they do about patients. Fifth, we did not examine culture and religious background which may play a role in deciding on treatment methods, especially in Asian countries.…”

Effect of facial expression on decision making

“…On the one hand, making decisions for others involves deciding directly for other people. In this case, fewer risks are assumed than when making decisions for oneself, both in financial matters (Eriksen et al, 2020), and in healthcare (Batteux et al, 2019a). In turn, regarding the scenario in which the decision is to be made (loss or gain), fewer risks are assumed when we make decisions for other people in scenarios in which there is a probability of loss, even though they may be accompanied by gains (Batteux et al, 2019b).…”