Ridiculous Study of the Week: Taking Advice
Let’s make gender an issue in medicine again, shall we? Here was the conclusions of a recent study:
Patients are more likely to heed the advice of female doctors than their male counterparts
Really? When you read the rest of the article, the endpoint was whether the patient agreed with the advice and it seems that the men agreed with women doctors more. I am not sure what this really means? I can think of some other reasons but that would be inappropriate.
The new study suggests that some male doctors could learn a thing or two from female physicians – at least when it comes to dispensing advice on nutrition and exercise.
Kind of sexist thing to say after one study. And agreeing to advice versus truly following it is a whole different thing. I know many husbands who agree to anything their wive’s say just to avoid a fight (and then do what they want to do anyway).
Is the author comparing a relationship between a female physician and a male patient to that of woman and her husband? That’s a bit sick.
This is one example though of a trend I have recently discovered runs far deeper than I expected in these modern times. People think it is just fine to stereotype. If the study had any validity at all, the average man could not be far from the average woman and the overlapping bell shaped curves would be quite flat, with at least 40% of men doing better than the average woman. But go ahead and stereotype. Tell any man he can learn from any woman.
I have found an incredible number of my educated friends believe it is OK to assume a woman doctor will be more empathetic and communicative than a man. I could not convince them that these things if needed should be expected either way, or that since they take time expecting more from a woman could make it harder for her to close a visit and thus result in a wage gap. An incredible number thought they were entitled to the additional time it might take to meet their expectations. The lawyers in particular could not understand how clients wanting more of your time could make you poorer, and bragged about how they coddled clients as if that didn’t pay well for them! I tell them ” I like to give it away, and be appreciated as an individual for it, even though it means I make less, but please don’t tell me you expect it because I’m a woman, or let the guy get away with less than adequate if you won’t let the woman”. They tell me their higher expectation, merely because the doctor is a woman, is a complement and should be received gracefully. So with this much stereotyping being so acceptable, I wouldn’t be surprised if this study is revealing a truth. But perhaps if it was repeated with email interactions, and names were changed to opposite sex, it would show just the opposite.
Pointless, utterly pointless.