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Judging a person’s professional skills on how they look does ring inequality alarm bells, writes Sheilagh Foley
I attended a doctor recently who smiled as we met. She made small talk while she carried out the examination, remembering a few things about me from a prior encounter a year before. She created a friendly relaxed atmosphere.
She told me a story about her mother who had recently had open heart surgery. The mother had gone into hospital for a small procedure and, lo and behold, ended up with her chest cracked open. This prompted concern, wondering if the surgeon was too gung-ho, carrying out major surgery on an elderly person unnecessarily. After discussing things with the surgeon it was agreed the bigger surgery was indeed warranted.
When her mother found out they had questioned the surgeon, she was mortified. She insisted that, of course, he could be trusted to do the right thing. They were all feeling a bit sheepish and looking down at their shoes when she concluded, “Sure, after all, isn’t he a very good-looking man!”.
I shared a laugh with my doctor and thought of other times I have heard a doctor’s appearance commented on as part of their review. It occasionally crops up, usually when I am talking to a female patient from the older generation about their doctor or medical experience. They include their doctor’s looks as part of their confirmation that the doctor is worth their weight in gold.
For example:
“Oh, he’s great, now, great altogether, Had everything done in a flash, and he was very good-looking. He’d be the top man now in this field I’d say, oh yeah, 100%. Very good-looking.”
Or the reverse flip:
“He was dreadful, horrific, I wouldn’t send a cat to him. He couldn’t cure meat. I was very surprised at how bad he was, because he’s not bad lookin, ya know. Oh, he was dreadful, dreadful, dreadful. I will go back to him on Tuesday. Yerra, either I go, or the cat goes!”
Or the backhanded:
“I thought, now, she’d be better. She’s a lovely look about her, ya know, isn’t it a shame she’s not able for the job at all. She might do modelling or something, would she do that do you think? Could you imagine seeing her coming down the ward, and she says she’d cut you open, sure she wouldn’t have a clue!”
Judging a person’s professional skills on how they look does ring inequality alarm bells. However, I can understand, to a certain degree, how a person’s appearance, or more importantly their demeanour, can play into your overall opinion of them – that’s human nature after all.
A person who exercises a lot, may look healthy, which equates to looking well, which is adjacent to looking good. Maybe this triggers something in your survival brain. If they take care of themselves, they must value health, therefore increasing the chance they will take care of you. In the same vein, a rude person becomes unattractive. Maybe that’s a trigger warning to your fight-or-flight response, they are not paying attention to you and that could be detrimental to you in a health crisis.
Just because these triggers ring bells, doesn’t make them 100% accurate. Also, what was important in the subconscious survival mind of a patient 40 years ago is different to the subconscious mind of today’s patients, especially those who grew up in the Internet age.
Before the Internet there wasn’t choice and online reviews, you went to the doctor that you were told to go to. If you wanted to research them, you didn’t have much to go on, only what other people you encountered told you, and your own personal interactions with the doctor. Health literacy would have been low, the doctor patient relationship was more paternalistic. It could have been hard for a patient to size up the skill of the doctor, so it’s understandable that what the patient saw in front of them started to form part of their appraisal of the doc.
Nowadays, we have a lot of reference points to base a decision off, we thankfully don’t need to rely on looks. Ninety percent of us will have googled our symptoms before we are seen; we may have questions locked and loaded. They may (or may not) result in feeling heard or/and understood. We may have looked up reviews on the doctor. We probably watched doctors on TV growing up and subconsciously use them as a reference point. Doctors don’t necessarily hold the same societal grandeur as they once did. Last, but not least, ‘Good looking’ is now a very diverse concept, conventional good looks are somewhat out of fashion.
I don’t consciously judge a person’s competence on their looks. If anything I like to keep all of my medical experiences quite clinical. However, how a doctor interacts with me will form part of my opinion of how good they are at their job. As a patient, I see myself as the client. It doesn’t matter if procedurally they are masterful, I need the doctor to start caring about me before the procedure, and continue to care after, for as long as I justifiable require support.
When I left the doctors office after she told me the story of her mother’s heart operation and the funny importance her mother had placed on the surgeon’s looks, it occurred to me I am also influenced, not by looks, but by kindness. The doctor had been kind to me, she was friendly, she remembered me, she made an effort, she shared something.
Would I recommend her to my family and friends? Absolutely.
Was I basing this on my extensive knowledge of her medical performance history? No. I don’t even know if she had other patients, I didn’t see any. She could have been the janitor!
However, I am not just basing my goodwill towards her on her kindness. She was confident, she carried out her checks thoroughly and methodically. She looked back at old notes and repeated them to me for confirmation. She asked me about other doctors I was seeing and other things that were going on with me medically. She was efficient, making a diagnosis and taking action on the spot. I went in for one procedure and she did two to save me coming back. The other staff in the office greeted her warmly as she passed. And so on. My subconscious mind was busily pulling together the strands of my opinion of her.
It’s important to acknowledge that judging a doctor solely on their appearance is inherently flawed. However, factors like their demeanor, communication style, and the overall experience they provide, significantly influences our perception of their competence and trustworthiness. There is a lot of power in kindness and empathy. Beyond technical skills, patients value qualities like compassion, understanding, and interest. Ultimately, the best doctors are those who combine medical expertise with a genuine concern for their patients’ well-being.
Of course, what this article is missing is the other side of the equation – do doctors judge patients based on their looks?
We can assume we are all susceptible to a degree of unconscious bias, recognising this human weakness could be a step towards working harder for equitable and effective healthcare on all sides.
Ultimately, in an ideal world, care should not centre around how hot a person is – with the exception of those with high temperatures, and of course, the drop dead gorgeous.