Hidden Beneath the Surface: An Experiment Exploring Gender Concordance in Physician-Patient Relationships

Abstract: When seeking a primary care physician, individuals often select physicians that share their gender identity. We utilized a novel pre-registered experimental design to investigate whether these gender concordance preferences are due to homophily or deeper behavioral differences that systematically covary along gender. We collected 500 physician profiles from a health insurance website. Then, we edited these profiles such that each physician profile could be presented as either male or female, regardless of the physician’s true gender. Physician selection was predicted by patient-physician gender concordance along both presented gender and true gender, suggesting that both homophily and deep-level gender differences play a role. These effects were driven by female dyads such that female participants were more likely to select profiles that were presented as female as well as profiles that were written by female physicians, regardless of presented gender. Patient empowerment partially explained the effect of true gender on physician selection.

Keywords: physician-patient relationship, trust-building, gender, gender concordance