Decontextualisation for framing effect reduction

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Cognitive Psychology
• Decision Science

Background:

• The framing effect significantly influences healthcare professionals' decision-making.
• Understanding and mitigating cognitive biases are crucial in medical training.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate the presence of the framing effect on residents' decisions.
• To evaluate decontextualisation as an intervention to reduce framing bias.

Main Methods:

• Randomised controlled trial involving residents from a university.
• Use of clinical vignettes with varied question framing and a decontextualisation test.
• Analysis of responses before and after the decontextualisation intervention.

Main Results:

• The framing effect was observed in 71.1% of initial responses.
• After decontextualisation, the framing effect reduced to 67.3%.
• The reduction was statistically significant for framing involving risky decision-making (p=0.03).

Conclusions:

• Decontextualisation is an effective strategy to reduce framing effect bias in residents.
• This intervention shows particular promise for mitigating bias in risky decision-making scenarios.
• Decontextualisation exercises can improve critical thinking skills in medical education.