Affect and neutrality in physician behavior: a study of patients' values and satisfaction

Physicians' emotional expressivity was contrasted with emotional neutrality in a study of consumers' preferences regarding physician behavior in the medical encounter. Two hundred twenty-seven health-science students completed instruments designed to measure the values they held regarding physicians' emotional expressions as well as their perceptions of and satisfaction with the emotional behavior of a physician presented in a videotape simulation. Overall, consumers attached a low value to neutrality and preferred affective behavior to it, although their previously held values did significantly influence their degree of satisfaction with neutral behavior by the physician. Values did not influence recognition of or satisfaction with the nonneutral emotions. This research also shed light on consumer reactions to other emotions including reassurance and humor.