Cognitive Bias and Dissonance in Surgical Practice: A Narrative Review

Caroline E Richburg; Lesly A Dossett; Tasha M Hughes

doi:10.1016/j.suc.2022.11.003

Cognitive Bias and Dissonance in Surgical Practice: A Narrative Review

Surg Clin North Am. 2023 Apr;103(2):271-285. doi: 10.1016/j.suc.2022.11.003.

Authors

Caroline E Richburg¹, Lesly A Dossett², Tasha M Hughes³

Affiliations

¹ University of Michigan Medical School, 1500 East Medical Center Drive, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. Electronic address: https://twitter.com/cerichburg.
² Department of Surgery, Michigan Medicine, 2101 Taubman Center, 1500 East Medical Center Drive, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. Electronic address: https://twitter.com/leslydossett.
³ Department of Surgery, Michigan Medicine, 2101 Taubman Center, 1500 East Medical Center Drive, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. Electronic address: tmhughes@med.umich.edu.

PMID: 36948718
DOI: 10.1016/j.suc.2022.11.003

Abstract

A cognitive bias describes "shortcuts" subconsciously applied to new scenarios to simplify decision-making. Unintentional introduction of cognitive bias in surgery may result in surgical diagnostic error that leads to delayed surgical care, unnecessary procedures, intraoperative complications, and delayed recognition of postoperative complications. Data suggest that surgical error secondary to the introduction of cognitive bias results in significant harm. Thus, debiasing is a growing area of research which urges practitioners to deliberately slow decision-making to reduce the effects of cognitive bias.

Keywords: Cognitive bias; Cognitive dissonance; Decision-making; Heuristics; Surgical error.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Bias
Cognition*
Decision Making*
Diagnostic Errors / psychology
Humans
Medical Errors