https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7077-658X
Figures & data
Table 1. Inter-item correlations of the items assessing quality-of-care (dependent variable).
Figure 1. Allocation of participants to one of the eight groups according to type of empathic reaction and physician’s gender.
A flow chart describes the randomization process of 542 participants to the eight experimental groups. The reasons for exclusion are described in detail. Because it was not possible to specify the inclusion criteria on MTurk in order to prevent participants not living in the USA, not speaking English fluently, and not having seen a physician in the past six months from participating in our study, 162 participants not meeting our pre-specified inclusion criteria had to be excluded after randomization had taken place. We did not identify any cases with inappropriate answering patterns (i.e., all answers rated with highest or lowest possible value, all answers with the scale mean, or inappropriate responses to the open-ended questions). Data from 40 to 55 participants have been analyzed in the different groups.
Table 2. Summary of participant characteristics.
Table 3. Mean quality-of-care ratings depending on the type of empathic physician communication and physician gender.