Inattentional Blindness and the Food Bank: Reflections of a Medical Student

In the field of psychology, there is a phenomenon known as “inattentional blindness,” in which normal, healthy humans do not perceive some of the things they can, in fact, see. A quick Internet search provides numerous (often humorous) examples of people failing to perceive things that seem obviously important to an outside observer. Though research is ongoing, it makes sense that in a world filled with different stimuli and only so much processing power, the brain must be selective in its allocation of attention. However, sometimes this filtering comes at the expense of missing important observations.

As a medical student, I both rely on and constantly fight against inattentional blindness. I rely on it in the sense that if I had to think about everything going on around me, I would have only a small amount of attention left to focus on the patient sitting in front of me, or the study materials upon which I would be tested in the near future. I fight against it in the sense that practicing medicine requires the ability to make accurate observations about the patient, and if I narrow my focus to a particular diagnosis too quickly, I may miss other important findings that impact the patient’s condition.

Sometimes those factors subject to inattentional blindness may not even be “medical” in nature. The other day, I was listening to a podcast about the cost of healthcare called “An Arm and a Leg,” and this particular episode reported on an experiment in which physicians were evaluated on their abilities to detect social concerns that might impact management of a medical condition. In the experiment, a patient-actor presents to her primary care physician both for symptoms of hypothyroidism and for advice on getting hip surgery for chronic aseptic necrosis. However, the patient mentions in passing that she wants the surgery “so she can take care of her son.” The patient-actor’s story (that she only tells if prompted) is that she is the sole caretaker of her chronically ill son, who is dependent on her for care. The intention of the experiment was to see if the doctor would pick up on this statement and explore it further. Knowing the patient’s home situation would lead the doctor to recommend delaying the otherwise medically indicated surgery, as the recovery time would inhibit her ability to take care of her son.

In the experiment, most doctors picked up on the patient-actor’s symptoms of hypothyroidism and ordered the appropriate tests. However, far fewer picked up on the patient’s concern for her son and its implications for her treatment plan. The focused attention that helped those doctors identify the multifaceted presentation of hypothyroidism also produced a sort of inattentional blindness that kept them from perceiving a very important factor regarding the patient’s medical care. In order to care for patients, they needed to both rely on and fight against inattentional blindness.

I will confess that before I interviewed Dr. Shah and Heather Stanton about their involvement with the San Antonio Food Bank, I did not devote much (if any) attention to the organization. I’ve lived in San Antonio for two and a half years now, and for all the trips to H-E-B and the drives up and down Babcock, I never saw the food bank logo, and I never saw the food bank trucks, and I therefore never even thought about supporting the organization. I didn’t really even see it.

After those interviews and writing those stories, I see reminders of the San Antonio Food Bank all over town. When I’m finally off of the medical student budget in a few years, I hope to be able to support the food bank more, but for now my family and I are planning on participating in the 5k benefiting the food bank this Thanksgiving. If you’re into running, walking, or just earning some extra dessert, you should too! Still, the problem of inattentional blindness remains. It makes us miss opportunities to help each other, but we also can’t help anyone without the focused attention it provides. I’m not pretending to have a solution to this problem; I think that coming to terms with the limits of our mental capacities is part of being human. Still, making a habit of intentionally looking for ways to better the lives of others is a great start. Inattentional blindness may be inevitable, but there is no reason that it should let our neighbors go hungry.