Agreeable patient meets affiliative physician: How physician behavior affects patient outcomes depends on patient personality

ObjectiveThis study tests whether the personality trait of agreeableness in simulated patients moderates their reactions to the physician's behavior. We predicted that the more agreeable the participants, the more positive the interaction outcomes when they see a high affiliative physician as compared to a low affiliative physician.MethodsParticipants (60 students) watched videotaped excerpts (2 min each) of 4 physicians exhibiting a high affiliative behavior and of 4 physicians exhibiting a low affiliative behavior. Participants reported after each physician their satisfaction, trust, determination to adhere to the treatment recommendations, and their perception of the physician's competence. They also completed the agreeableness scale of the NEO-PI-R personality questionnaire.ResultsThe higher the agreeableness scores of the participants, the higher was their trust with the high affiliative physicians as compared to the low affiliative physicians, their perception of the physician's competence, and their determination to adhere to the treatment.ConclusionResults confirmed that the more agreeable the simulated patients were, the better they reacted to a physician behavior that was high rather than low in affiliativeness.Practice implicationsThese results suggest that the more agreeable patients are, the more important it is that physicians adopt a high affiliative behavior.