Don’t be rude to your doctor. It might kill you.

Cognitive biases are funny little things. Everyone has them, nobody likes to admit it, and they can range from minor to severe depending on the situation. Biases can be influenced by factors as subtle as ourmood or various personalitytraits.

A newstudy soon to be published in the Journal of Applied Psychology suggests that experiencing rudeness can be added to the list. More disturbingly, the study’s findings suggest that it is a strong enough effect to impact how medical professionals diagnose patients.

Life hack: don’t be rude to your doctor

The team of researchers behind the project tested to see if participants could be influenced by the common anchoring bias, defined by the researchersas “the tendency to rely too heavily or fixate on one piece of information when making judgments and decisions.” Most people have experienced it. One of its more common forms involves being given a particular value, say in negotiations on price, which then becomes the center of reasoning even when reason would suggest that number should be ignored.

It can also pop up in medicine. As co-author Dr. Trevor Foulkexplains, “If you go into the doctor and say ‘I think I’m having a heart attack,’ that can become an anchor and the doctor may get fixated on that diagnosis, even if you’re just having indigestion. If doctors don’t move off anchors enough, they’ll start treating the wrong thing.”

Lots of things can make somebody more or less likely to anchor themselves to an idea. The authors of the study, who have several papers on the effects of rudeness, decided to see if that could also cause people to stumble into cognitive errors. Past research suggested that exposure to rudeness can limit people’s perspective — perhaps anchoring them.

In the first version of the study, medical students were given a hypothetical patient to treat and access to information on their condition alongside an (incorrect) suggestion on what the condition was. This served as the anchor. In some versions of the tests, the students overheard two doctors arguing rudely before diagnosing the patient. Later variations switched the diagnosis test for business negotiations or workplace tasks while maintaining the exposure to rudeness.

Across all iterations of the test, those exposed to rudeness were more likely to anchor themselves to the initial, incorrect suggestion despite the availability of evidence against it. This was less significant for study participants who scored higher on a test of how wide of a perspective they tended to have. The disposition of these participants, who answered in the affirmative to questions like, “Before criticizing somebody, I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in his/her place,” was able to effectively negate the narrowing effects of rudeness.

What this means for you and your healthcare

The effects of anchoring when a medical diagnosis is on the line can be substantial. Dr. Foulk explains that, in some simulations, exposure to rudeness can raise the mortality rate as doctors fixate on the wrong problems.

The authors of the study suggest that managers take a keener interest in ensuring civility in workplaces and giving employees the tools they need to avoid judgment errors after dealing with rudeness. These steps could help prevent anchoring.

Also, you might consider being nicer to people.