Doctors, when surveyed, say they are opposed to the very idea of skewing their prescribing practice in favor of companies giving them money. The problem is, they still take lots of money in the form of honoraria, speaking fees, research grants, and outright gifts from pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Research suggests they can then fail to recognize that they’ve been influenced.
Psychologists George Loewenstein and Don Moore argued in a 2004 paper that while people consciously think about their professional obligations, the other half of a conflict — self-interest — is “automatic, viscerally compelling and often unconscious.” That theme keeps returning in more recent research.
