Applying Insights from Behavioral Economics in Healthcare to Reduce Biased Doctor Recommendations

Abstract

Behavioral economics has opened many doors in understanding the psychological aspect of decision-making in various fields of study. The focus of this paper is on the rapid expansion of healthcare in the United States and how it presents an increased importance in accurate results with behavioral applications. This paper explores how the availability bias, anchoring effect, and outcome bias affect physicians’ decision-making ability when making recommendations to their patients. Previous experiments and observations will be discussed to demonstrate each heuristic’s relevance and effect on the patient’s health. The solution proposed is a virtual platform to mitigate three biases using a digital algorithm.