We’re all guilty of it, basing decisions on the most recent event. It’s surely part of our wiring. The question is - what do we do about it? In this episode, Justin Morgenstern breaks down availability bias: what it is, how it shows up in life and medical practice, the difference between learning and bias, research showing availability bias happening in real-time, and ways to turn availability bias from a bug into a feature.
Guest Bio: Justin Morgenstern is a community emergency physician with a passion for education, resuscitation, and evidence-based medicine, Purveyor of the amazing First10EM blog, Justin works in the Greater Toronto Area.
On a personal note, Justin and I met years ago at a conference in the Bahamas. He was in the audience and was such an incredible contributor to a group conversation that I had him come up on stage and be a panel member. Since then, I’ve found that he is a rare mix of humility, genius, and kindness.
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For full show notes of this episode and all sorts of other goodies, visit our podcast website
We discuss:
- Availability Bias and how it relates to everyday decision-making.
- What is availability bias;
- Where this shows up in clinical practice;
- Learning is not availability bias;
- Whether more testing is the right path for subtle presentations of life-threatening diseases;
- Testing thresholds;
- Tips for avoiding availability bias in our practices;
- Real world example of availability bias;
- Justin’s tools for addressing bias;
- Ways to hack the bias.
