MOTIVATION: “Rose Colored” Reasoning

Posted on February 18, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

***

***

Motivated Reasoning is the tendency to process information in a way that aligns with your desires and preconceptions. It’s like having rose-colored glasses for your beliefs.

Motivated reasoning (motivational reasoning bias) is a cognitive and social response in which we, consciously or sub-consciously, allow emotion-loaded motivational biases to affect how new information is perceived. Individuals tend to favor evidence that coincides with their current beliefs and reject new information that contradicts them, despite contrary evidence.

According to Wikipedia, motivated reasoning can be classified into two categories: 1) Accuracy-oriented (non-directional), in which the motive is to arrive at an accurate conclusion, irrespective of the individual’s beliefs, and 2) Goal-oriented (directional), in which the motive is to arrive at a particular conclusion.

Furthermore, colleague Dan Ariely PhD suggests that when we encounter any new information, we twist and turn it to fit our existing views. This mental gymnastics helps us avoid cognitive dissonance but can also lead us astray.

So, next time you’re defending your viewpoint, ask yourself: am I seeing this clearly, or is it motivated reasoning at play?

COMMENTS APPRECIATED

Subscribe Today!

***

***

Filed under: "Doctors Only", Career Development, Ethics, Experts Invited, LifeStyle, mental health | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

DISCOMFORT: Cognitive Dissonance

Posted on January 26, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

***

***

Cognitive Dissonance is the discomfort experienced when holding conflicting cognitions, like believing in healthy eating while munching on a doghnut. It’s a mental tug-of-war that makes us squirm.

To reduce this discomfort according to colleague Dan Ariely PhD, we often change our beliefs or behaviors to align them. This is why smokers might downplay the health risks of smoking. Understanding cognitive dissonance helps us recognize these mental gymnastics and strive for consistency in our beliefs and actions.

So, next time you feel that mental itch, it’s cognitive dissonance asking for some resolution.

COMMENTS APPRECIATED

Subscribe Today!

***

***

Filed under: Experts Invited, iMBA, Inc., LifeStyle, mental health | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

SUPERSTITIONS: In Medicine?

Posted on January 11, 2025 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd

***

***

  • Saying a patient’s name in the emergency room will almost ensure that person comes in that day.
  • A code cart next to an unstable patient is said to ward off evil spirits.
  • Traditional healers usually use superstition in their practices to manage human health problems and diseases.
  • Such practices create a conflict with the medical profession and its evidence-based practices.

***

So, what exactly is a Superstition? Does superstition change a measurable patient outcome, such as decreased anastomotic leak rate, surgical site infection, or mortality? Hard to say. But does it improve the surgeon’s confidence, thereby improving their performance? Likely so.

Science is not the opposite of superstition; it is the result of superstition, the result of humans trying to make sense of the world and prove each other wrong. We keep doing the things we do to maintain some semblance of control. In further defense of superstition, ritualistic behaviors ensure that the necessary boxes are checked and that we pay attention to the details. In surgery, details matter.

“Superstition is the irrational belief that an object or behavior has the power to influence an outcome, when there’s no logical connection between them. Most of us aren’t superstitious – but most of us are a ‘littlestitious.’”
– Gretchen Rubin

So, until there is evidence to the contrary, I will keep tearing off the little patient labels and keeping their names with me in hopes that they do well after surgery.

COMMENTS APPRECIATED

Refer, Subscribe and Like

***

***

Filed under: "Doctors Only", Ethics, Experts Invited, LifeStyle, Marcinko Associates, mental health | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

BACKFIRE: Mind Effect

Posted on December 27, 2024 by Dr. David Edward Marcinko MBA MEd CMP™

By Staff Reporters

SPONSOR: http://www.MarcinkoAssociates.com

***

***

The Backfire Effect refers to the strengthening of a belief even after it has been challenged.

Cook and Lewandowsky (2011) explain it very well in the context of changing people’s minds in their Debunking Handbook. The backfire effect may work based on the same foundation as Declinism, in that we do not like change. It is also similar to negativity bias, in that we wish to avoid losing and other negative outcomes—in this case, one’s idea is being challenged or rejected (i.e. perceived as being made out to be “wrong”) and thus, they may hold on tighter to the idea than they had before.

However, according to colleague Dan Ariely PhD, there are caveats to the backfire effect—for example, we also tend to abandon a belief if there’s enough evidence against it with regard to specific facts.

***

COMMENTS APPRECIATED

Subscribe and Refer

***

Filed under: Book Reviews, Career Development, Ethics, Experts Invited, Glossary Terms, Marketing & Advertising, mental health | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »