On the interplay between pain observation, guilt and shame proneness and honesty.

Seeing others in pain can stimulate powerful socio-emotional responses. Does it also make us more moral? In two laboratory experiments, we examined the interplay between pain observation, self-reported guilt and shame, subjective perceptions of pain intensity, and subsequent honest behavior. Watching a confederate perform a moderately painful (vs. non-painful) task did not affect honest behavior in a subsequent die-roll task. Independent of pain observation, there was a positive relationship between self-reported guilt proneness and shame proneness and honesty. More specifically, individuals who are more prone to feeling guilt -and to a lesser extent shame- behaved more honestly. Furthermore, we found weak support for the hypothesis that greater perceived pain (rather than objective pain) is associated with less cheating. We call for further research in the interconnections between perceived pain, guilt, shame, and moral behavior.

Physician Perceptions of Catching COVID-19

BackgroundRisk perception, influenced and biased by multiple factors, can affect behavior. ObjectiveTo assess the variability of physician perceptions of catching COVID-19. DesignCross sectional, random stratified sample of physicians registered with Sermo, a global networking platform open to verified and licensed physicians. Main outcome measuresThe survey asked: "What is your likelihood of catching COVID-19 in the next three months?" The physicians were asked to give their best estimate as an exact percentage. ResultsThe survey was completed by 1004 physicians (40 countries, 67 specialties, 49% frontline [e.g. ER, infectious disease, internal medicine]) with a mean (SD) age of 49.14 (12) years. Mean (SD) self-risk estimate was 32.3% {+/-} 26% with a range from 0% to 100% (Figure 1a). Risk estimates were higher in younger (<50 years) doctors and in non-US doctors versus their older and US counterparts (p<0.05 for all) (Figure 1b). Risk estimates were higher among front line versus non-frontline doctors (p<0.05). Risk estimates were higher for women than men (p<0.05) among respondents (60%) reporting gender. O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=122 SRC="FIGDIR/small/20249089v2_fig1A.gif" ALT="Figure 1A"> View larger version (17K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@7dd844org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@17241org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@f43cb2org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@bcd7f1_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG O_FLOATNOFigure 1A.C_FLOATNO Distribution of risk prediction for overall sample (N=1004). Upper panel is a line box whisker and bottom panel shows the frequency distribution. C_FIG O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=151 SRC="FIGDIR/small/20249089v2_fig1B.gif" ALT="Figure 1B"> View larger version (21K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@51be7org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@16ae5fcorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@12118a2org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1d848c6_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG O_FLOATNOFigure1B.C_FLOATNO Mean (SD) risk estimates by age, frontline status, and geographic region. C_FIG ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the first global study to document physician risk perceptions for catching COVID-19 and how it is impacted by age, gender, practice specialty and geography. Accurate calibration of risk perception is vital since both over- and underestimation of risk could impact physician behavior and have implications for public health.

Prevalence of Sharing Access Credentials in Electronic Medical Records / 대한의료정보학회지

OBJECTIVES: Confidentiality of health information is an important aspect of the physician patient relationship. The use of digital medical records has made data much more accessible. To prevent data leakage, many countries have created regulations regarding medical data accessibility. These regulations require a unique user ID for each medical staff member, and this must be protected by a password, which should be kept undisclosed by all means. METHODS: We performed a four-question Google Forms-based survey of medical staff. In the survey, each participant was asked if he/she ever obtained the password of another medical staff member. Then, we asked how many times such an episode occurred and the reason for it. RESULTS: A total of 299 surveys were gathered. The responses showed that 220 (73.6%) participants reported that they had obtained the password of another medical staff member. Only 171 (57.2%) estimated how many time it happened, with an average estimation of 4.75 episodes. All the residents that took part in the study (45, 15%) had obtained the password of another medical staff member, while only 57.5% (38/66) of the nurses reported this. CONCLUSIONS: The use of unique user IDs and passwords to defend the privacy of medical data is a common requirement in medical organizations. Unfortunately, the use of passwords is doomed because medical staff members share their passwords with one another. Strict regulations requiring each staff member to have it's a unique user ID might lead to password sharing and to a decrease in data safety.