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When peer comparison information harms physician well-being

Policymakers and business leaders often use peer comparison information—showing people how their behavior compares to that of their peers—to motivate a range of behaviors. Despite their widespread use, the potential impact of peer comparison interventions on recipients’ well-being is largely unknown...

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Autores principales: Reiff, Joseph S., Zhang, Justin C., Gallus, Jana, Dai, Hengchen, Pedley, Nathaniel M., Vangala, Sitaram, Leuchter, Richard K., Goshgarian, Gregory, Fox, Craig R., Han, Maria, Croymans, Daniel M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: National Academy of Sciences 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9303988/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35858307
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2121730119
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author Reiff, Joseph S.
Zhang, Justin C.
Gallus, Jana
Dai, Hengchen
Pedley, Nathaniel M.
Vangala, Sitaram
Leuchter, Richard K.
Goshgarian, Gregory
Fox, Craig R.
Han, Maria
Croymans, Daniel M.
author_facet Reiff, Joseph S.
Zhang, Justin C.
Gallus, Jana
Dai, Hengchen
Pedley, Nathaniel M.
Vangala, Sitaram
Leuchter, Richard K.
Goshgarian, Gregory
Fox, Craig R.
Han, Maria
Croymans, Daniel M.
author_sort Reiff, Joseph S.
collection PubMed
description Policymakers and business leaders often use peer comparison information—showing people how their behavior compares to that of their peers—to motivate a range of behaviors. Despite their widespread use, the potential impact of peer comparison interventions on recipients’ well-being is largely unknown. We conducted a 5-mo field experiment involving 199 primary care physicians and 46,631 patients to examine the impact of a peer comparison intervention on physicians’ job performance, job satisfaction, and burnout. We varied whether physicians received information about their preventive care performance compared to that of other physicians in the same health system. Our analyses reveal that our implementation of peer comparison did not significantly improve physicians’ preventive care performance, but it did significantly decrease job satisfaction and increase burnout, with the effect on job satisfaction persisting for at least 4 mo after the intervention had been discontinued. Quantitative and qualitative evidence on the mechanisms underlying these unanticipated negative effects suggest that the intervention inadvertently signaled a lack of support from leadership. Consistent with this account, providing leaders with training on how to support physicians mitigated the negative effects on well-being. Our research uncovers a critical potential downside of peer comparison interventions, highlights the importance of evaluating the psychological costs of behavioral interventions, and points to how a complementary intervention—leadership support training—can mitigate these costs.
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spelling pubmed-93039882022-07-23 When peer comparison information harms physician well-being Reiff, Joseph S. Zhang, Justin C. Gallus, Jana Dai, Hengchen Pedley, Nathaniel M. Vangala, Sitaram Leuchter, Richard K. Goshgarian, Gregory Fox, Craig R. Han, Maria Croymans, Daniel M. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Social Sciences Policymakers and business leaders often use peer comparison information—showing people how their behavior compares to that of their peers—to motivate a range of behaviors. Despite their widespread use, the potential impact of peer comparison interventions on recipients’ well-being is largely unknown. We conducted a 5-mo field experiment involving 199 primary care physicians and 46,631 patients to examine the impact of a peer comparison intervention on physicians’ job performance, job satisfaction, and burnout. We varied whether physicians received information about their preventive care performance compared to that of other physicians in the same health system. Our analyses reveal that our implementation of peer comparison did not significantly improve physicians’ preventive care performance, but it did significantly decrease job satisfaction and increase burnout, with the effect on job satisfaction persisting for at least 4 mo after the intervention had been discontinued. Quantitative and qualitative evidence on the mechanisms underlying these unanticipated negative effects suggest that the intervention inadvertently signaled a lack of support from leadership. Consistent with this account, providing leaders with training on how to support physicians mitigated the negative effects on well-being. Our research uncovers a critical potential downside of peer comparison interventions, highlights the importance of evaluating the psychological costs of behavioral interventions, and points to how a complementary intervention—leadership support training—can mitigate these costs. National Academy of Sciences 2022-07-14 2022-07-19 /pmc/articles/PMC9303988/ /pubmed/35858307 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2121730119 Text en Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Social Sciences
Reiff, Joseph S.
Zhang, Justin C.
Gallus, Jana
Dai, Hengchen
Pedley, Nathaniel M.
Vangala, Sitaram
Leuchter, Richard K.
Goshgarian, Gregory
Fox, Craig R.
Han, Maria
Croymans, Daniel M.
When peer comparison information harms physician well-being
title When peer comparison information harms physician well-being
title_full When peer comparison information harms physician well-being
title_fullStr When peer comparison information harms physician well-being
title_full_unstemmed When peer comparison information harms physician well-being
title_short When peer comparison information harms physician well-being
title_sort when peer comparison information harms physician well-being
topic Social Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9303988/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35858307
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2121730119
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