Medical decision making, ethics, and behavioral economics

Bioethicists have long argued for rational persuasion to help patients with their medical decisions. But the findings of behavioral economics – popularized in Thaler and Sunstein's Nudge and other books – show that arguments depending on rational thinking are unlikely to be successful, and even that the idea of purely rational persuasion may be a fiction. In this talk based on her recent book, "Good Ethics and Bad Choices: The Relevance of Behavioral Economics for Medical Ethics", Dr. Blumenthal-Barby examines how behavioral economics challenges some of the most fundamental tenets of medical ethics. She integrates some of the latest research from both fields and provides examples of how physicians might apply concepts of behavioral economics in practice.