Year: 2025
Type: editorial
Abstract: bias clinical trials ethics Editorials evidence based medicine A lthough the book had been gifted to me years before, I just recently had the chance to read Shankar Vedantam's The Hidden Brain. 1 For those who have not yet read it, it is a wonderful exploration of the world of invisible biases that shape our daily lives and the decisions we make, without our knowing of their existence.Within the opening few chapters, the author introduces us to the findings of a representative sociological experiment.He describes a communal coffee/tea area within a nondescript office space in the United Kingdom. 2 The local workers are requested, by a sign posted near the break area, to deposit small amounts of cash in a bin each time they avail themselves of the refreshments.In this setting, a behavioral biologist named Melissa Bateson conducted an insightful experiment.Each week, she changed the design of the sign that posted the prices.All the text would remain the same except for a small decorative image at the top of the posting.The image would change on alternating weeks between a pair of eyes and more neutral images of different flowers.After several weeks of data collection, she found convincingly that the office workers deposited funds far more frequently on weeks during which the image with eyes was displayed.The subtle suggestion of being surveilled altered their behavior.But most interestingly of all, interviews with the workers after the experiment revealed they had no idea why they were paying more on those weeks.In fact, they had not even realized the signs had been changing!
Language: English
Subfield: Pharmacology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,300
OpenAlex ID: W4412730457