Perceiver gender and patient diagnosis: two aspects of perceptions of medical patients

Subjects (N = 202) read one of four descriptions of a seriously ill woman and then completed the Profile of Mood States (POMS) as they thought she would complete it. The four descriptions were identical except that the patient was described alternately as having breast cancer, lung cancer, heart attack, or severe burns over her chest area. Data were analyzed in terms of perceiver gender and patient diagnosis. Women respondents perceived the patient as more angry or hostile and as having more total mood disturbance than men respondents. Breast cancer patients were perceived as more confused or bewildered than lung cancer patients. Cancer patients were generally perceived as more fatigued and confused than noncancer patients. Results are discussed in terms of their utility to health caregivers, who need to be aware that such biases may possibly exist in the patients themselves and in their support networks, and they may ultimately be detrimental to the patient's recovery.