Least Preferred Patient Test

Choose this exercise

Purpose: Demonstrate how context cues trigger unexamined assumptions about people and tasks.

Use it when: Use at the start of a session on cognitive bias, critical thinking, or assessment to show how quickly assumptions form.

Skip it when: Skip when the group is working through real workplace interpersonal conflicts or when clinical sensitivity around eldercare or childcare makes lighthearted jolt games inappropriate.

Group arrangement: Individual choice followed by whole-room revelation and debrief

Timing: Source specifies 3 minutes for activity and 5 minutes for debriefing; 10 minutes allocated for comfortable setup and discussion.

Materials and tools

• One printed Least Preferred Patient Test handout per person
• One pen or pencil per person
• Three display cards or slides: Patient B.R. (older woman), Patient S.T. (older man), Patient J.T. (infant/baby)

Before participants arrive

1. Print the scenario handout for each participant.
2. Queue the three reveal images on a screen or prepare three printed photo cards to hold up.

Say this to open

I am distributing a short scenario from a hospital personality test. Please read the three brief patient profiles silently and circle the one patient you would least enjoy caring for. Keep your sheet face down once you decide.

How to run it

1. Make individual choice 2 minutes

   Distribute the handout. Give participants 90 seconds to read the three profiles and secretly circle their least preferred patient. Ask them not to discuss their choices yet.

2. Check choices for first two profiles 2 minutes

   Ask for a show of hands: 'Who selected Patient B.R. as least preferred?' If anyone raised a hand, note they may have misread the prompt for 'most preferred'. Show image 1 (an older woman). Next ask: 'Who selected Patient S.T.?' Note any hands and show image 2 (an older man).

3. Reveal the third profile 2 minutes

   Ask: 'Who selected Patient J.T.?' Acknowledge the majority show of hands. Show image 3 (a baby). Pause silently for ten seconds while participants absorb the reveal.

4. Debrief assumptions 4 minutes

   Facilitate a structured discussion without teasing participants. Take two to three comments per debrief question, focusing on context cues and behavioral descriptions.

Debrief questions

• What assumptions did you make about Patient J.T. while reading the description, and what specific words triggered them?
• The prompt mentioned Burlington General is known for geriatrics. How did that detail steer your interpretation of the behavior?
• What makes people react negatively to those exact behaviors in an adult, but accept them in an infant?

Finished output: Completed individual selection sheets and shared observations on how context cues produce cognitive bias.

Remote

Display the text handout on a shared screen or paste the profiles into a private poll. Have participants submit their vote anonymously. Reveal the tally, then share the three patient images in order via slides while unmuting for debrief.

Hybrid

In-person participants use paper ballots or show of hands, while remote participants submit votes via an online poll. Display the images simultaneously on the in-room projector and through video screen share.

Access and participation choices

• Read the three profiles aloud for participants who benefit from auditory presentation.
• Participants may decline to raise their hand or reveal their vote during the tally without penalty.

If the session gets stuck

A participant circles Patient B.R. because they missed the word 'least'.

Briefly invite them to re-read the prompt and note that speed reading often flips negative criteria into positive preferences.

Participants feel tricked and become defensive during the reveal.

Remind the room immediately that the text was deliberately engineered to induce this exact assumption, so falling for it is standard human pattern matching, not a personal failure.

Terms used here

• Jolt: A brief experiential exercise that creates a surprise outcome to highlight a specific cognitive habit or bias.