Cognitive Bias and Dissonance in Surgical Practice: A Narrative Review

A cognitive bias describes “shortcuts” subconsciously applied to new scenarios to simplify decision-making. Unintentional introduction of cognitive bias in surgery may result in surgical diagnostic error that leads to delayed surgical care, unnecessary procedures , intraoperative complications , and delayed recognition of postoperative complications . Data suggest that surgical error secondary to the introduction of cognitive bias results in significant harm. Thus, debiasing is a growing area of research which urges practitioners to deliberately slow decision-making to reduce the effects of cognitive bias.