Observational studyBMJ open2023
Does doctors' personality differ from those of patients, the highly educated and other caring professions? An observational study using two nationally representative Australian surveys.
Observational study in BMJ open, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- The relationship between personality traits and job satisfaction among physicians at designated infectious disease medical institutions in Gansu province: the mediating role of negative coping strategies.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Association of physicians' Big Five personality traits with shared decision-making in patients with SLE.Rheumatology (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- Gender Representation of Health Care Professionals in Large Language Model-Generated Stories.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- German Physicians and Medical Students Do Not Represent the Population They Serve.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- The Relationship Between Unprofessional Social Media Posts and Personality Traits Made by Physician Assistant Students.Journal of medical education and curricular developmentArticle
- Post-Vaccination COVID-19 Infection among Health Care Workers: Description, Determinants, and Event-History Analysis.Indian journal of community medicine : official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social MedicineArticle
- Correlation Between the "Big Five" Personality Traits and Burnout in Orthopaedic Surgery Residents.JB & JS open accessReview
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesPersonality differences between doctors and patients can affect treatment outcomes. We examine these trait disparities, as well as differences across medical specialities.
designRetrospective, observational statistical analysis of secondary data.
settingData from two data sets that are nationally representative of doctors and the general population in Australia.
participantsWe include 23 358 individuals from a representative survey of the general Australian population (with subgroups of 18 705 patients, 1261 highly educated individuals and 5814 working in caring professions) as well as 19 351 doctors from a representative survey of doctors in Australia (with subgroups of 5844 general practitioners, 1776 person-oriented specialists and 3245 technique-oriented specialists).
main outcome measuresBig Five personality traits and locus of control. Measures are standardised by gender, age and being born overseas and weighted to be representative of their population.
resultsDoctors are significantly more agreeable (a: standardised score -0.12, 95% CIs -0.18 to -0.06), conscientious (c: -0.27 to -0.33 to -0.20), extroverted (e: 0.11, 0.04 to 0.17) and neurotic (n: 0.14, CI 0.08 to 0.20) than the general population (a: -0.38 to -0.42 to -0.34, c: -0.96 to -1.00 to -0.91, e: -0.22 to -0.26 to -0.19, n: -1.01 to -1.03 to -0.98) or patients (a: -0.77 to -0.85 to -0.69, c: -1.27 to -1.36 to -1.19, e: -0.24 to -0.31 to -0.18, n: -0.71 to -0.76 to -0.66). Patients (-0.03 to -0.10 to 0.05) are more open than doctors (-0.30 to -0.36 to -0.23). Doctors have a significantly more external locus of control (0.06, 0.00 to 0.13) than the general population (-0.10 to -0.13 to -0.06) but do not differ from patients (-0.04 to -0.11 to 0.03). There are minor differences in personality traits among doctors with different specialities.
conclusionsSeveral personality traits differ between doctors, the population and patients. Awareness about differences can improve doctor-patient communication and allow patients to understand and comply with treatment recommendations.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.