Superstitions in medicine

Do you hold any superstitions? We are trained as evidence-based healthcare practitioners, yet there are some superstitions that still persist in medicine. Superstition is an example of confirmation bias, where sometimes we would search for evidence to confirm one's beliefs. Confirmation bias is recognised as an important source of medical error and we discussed what we can do to mitigate this effect. The BMJ Christmas paper that Laura mentioned about the Q word: https://www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6446 Our expert guest: Dr Neil Dagnall is a researcher in applied cognitive psychology and carries out research projects on belief in the paranormal, mental toughness and anomalous thought processes. Check us out on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/BMJStudent Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bmj_student/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BMJStudent/