But, I must say, that practice is in itself a usual psychological phenomenon. In general, we form our opinion (on a person, or on any particular matter) within the first minute or two, or during the first encounter. For the rest of the time, we just look for evidence to prove that our initial impression is correct.
And it does not apply only to medicine and examination. As Richard Dennis observed, for many stock traders, the source of their first big profit determined their subsequent behaviour: people tend to be perennial bulls if they had their first bucket of gold from buying and holding, others become life-long bears if the first victory comes from short-selling.
Or, as Albert Einstein said: Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
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With this, my memory goes back to some 16 years ago, when I first organized the final examination. One particular candidate did not do quite well in the short cases, and, in those days, the regulation stated that he needed to be re-examined (immediately) by another pair of examiners.
One of the was the man who still had a moustache.
Before my mentor began the (supplementary) examination, he whispered to me, "This boy would fail."
"How could you know ?" I was puzzled.
"Look, he just peeped and squeaked like a horrified chicken. How could we take this kind of people as doctors ?" He murmured.
"You may be right, but you have not examined him," I said.
"Don't worry. I can always prove myself correct."
"Er ...?" I was startled.
"I shall show you how ..." my mentor finished with a curious smile.
With this, he set off for the examination.
1 comment:
You have prejudice in favour of those who use ink pen.
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