From: Decision-making at the limit of viability: the Austrian neonatal choice context
Cognitive biases | The possible influence of the bias on the communication between NICU professionals and parents |
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Anchoring effect: tendency to rely on the first piece of information received (the anchor). This piece of information is used to make subsequent judgments. | Speaking about risks before benefits may create a negative anchor on parents’ perception. |
Focusing effect: placing too much importance on one aspect of the situation that falsifies the prediction of a future outcome. | Speaking about all possible disabilities an EP infant may have for a lengthy period and not speaking about the likely abilities. |
Availability effect: estimation of a probability of an event that is associated with vivid memories of similar events happening before. | If doctors tell the parents that their child is going to die three times, but it survives nonetheless, parents overestimate the chances for survival in case of another event. |
Effective forecasting: individuals often predict the future health states inaccurately. Individuals tend to be more resilient than they predict. | Parents may find it difficult to imagine living with a disabled child, but manage it better than they anticipated nonetheless. |
Loss aversion: tendency to strongly prefer avoiding losses to acquiring gains (the loss of 100 EURO causes more loss of satisfaction that the satisfaction gained from winning 100 EURO). | Framing the information via losses and gains may have an impact on parents, i.e., losing a child vs getting a child. |