How Bias Influences Critical Thinking

How Bias Influences Critical Thinking – Week 1

A recent decision that I had to make that involved both critical thinking and a bias was while I was at work. I am in charge of the back office, and often have to deal with patients ordering materials when they come in for their exams, and then not wanting to pay for them, or not understanding their insurance benefits. In some instances this leads to mistakes being made on the offices end, and the patient is either not charged enough or over charged. Either way, when the patient comes to pick up their order they are not pleased with the office and I am left to make a quick decision, but still put some critical thinking into it. The biased that is involved in this decision is the loss aversion, I am usually not looking to gain anything from the situation, but prevent or reduce my losses. The particular situation, a patient ordered a year supply of contacts, was only charged for half the supply though. When they came to pick it up, the mistake had been caught and the additional charges were applied to their account. They were told multiple times that they had paid in full for the amount discussed, and was aggravated when they now had a balance. In an effort to keep the patient happy, and returning to the office for their supplies in the future, I had to make a quick yet rational decision to reduce the price of the product; covering our cost only, leaving no profit to be made. This made the patient happy, and they remain a loyal patient. My critical thinking was defiantly affected by biased, and I was trying to reduce my losses, rather than focus on making a profit.

Chapter 1. Critical Thinking, Pg 14.