Biomedical science limitations and flaws: why not choose wisely?

Choose Your Friends Wisely

When we think of the word ‘‘contagious,’’ we often think of something negative, like the flu. But transmitted diseases aren’t the only thing that can quickly spread within a society—certain feelings, emotions, and behaviors can be easier to catch than the common cold. Does seeing others laugh or yawn make you want to do it too? You’re definitely not alone—‘‘behavioral contagion,’’ or the tenden...

Partitioning default effects: why people choose not to choose.

Default options exert an influence in areas as varied as retirement program design, organ donation policy, and consumer choice. Past research has offered potential reasons why no-action defaults matter: (a) effort, (b) implied endorsement, and (c) reference dependence. The first two of these explanations have been experimentally demonstrated, but the latter has received far less attention. In t...

Choose Early or Choose Wisely - A Chinese Restaurant Game Approach

Agents in a network often face situations requiring them to make decisions without sufficient information. In such situations, they may postpone their decisions in order to observe and collect more information through learning from other agents. In this paper, we discuss the advantages of the postponement strategy from a gametheoretic perspective. We propose an extension to Chinese Restaurant G...

Endoscopy for gastroesophageal reflux disease: choose wisely.

In 2012, a healthy, normal-weight, 61-year-old woman presented to my gastroenterology clinic. She requested endoscopy because she was worried about cancer of the esophagus. Four years earlier, her primary care physician had diagnosed gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), prescribed once-daily acid-reduction therapy, and noted complete resolution of symptoms. As a precaution, the primary care ...

Food preferences in farm animals: why don't they always choose wisely?