Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)

Potential Biases

CHAMP Education for Child Abuse Medical Providers

The Application of Heuristics

  • Can be helpful in improving efficiency
  • Compounds biases in one’s thought process

Type of Cognitive Errors

Halo Effect
the tendency for our overall impression of a person influences how we feel about their character
Implicit Stereotypes
relying on generalizations
Anchoring Bias
inability to consider alternate diagnoses
Triage Cueing
referral basis on the assumption of a single diagnosis

REFERENCES:

  • Laskey 2014

Accessible Version

Whenever a report is made, as a mandated reporter, it's important to assess the application of heuristics. This can be very helpful to improve efficiency but can be harmful as it compounds biases in one's thought processes. These biases can occur in the form of cognitive errors, which there are several at play or that may apply here. There is the halo effect, which is when the tendency for our overall impression of a person influences how we feel about their character. There's also implicit stereotypes, where we rely on generalizations about individuals to dictate the decisions we then make. There's also anchoring bias that can impact the diagnostic process negatively, as it impacts our abilities to consider alternate diagnoses for the presentation at hand. And the fourth type of cognitive error is triage queuing, which is related somewhat to anchoring bias, as it then impacts the referrals, which are then based on assumptions of the single diagnosis that we've made when we've anchored on a specific diagnosis.