Learning from Others
Physicians rarely learn in isolation. In addition to updating beliefs based on their own experience, doctors observe and respond to the behavior, outcomes, and information generated by others. This social learning can occur through informal peer interactions, professional networks, exposure to new clinical evidence, or high-profile early adopters. As a result, learning from others plays a central role in the diffusion—and sometimes abandonment—of medical practices and technologies.
The literature on social learning emphasizes that information flows across physicians can generate spillovers that amplify or dampen individual learning. Early empirical work shows that physician productivity and treatment choices respond to the experience and outcomes of nearby peers, even in the absence of direct coordination or shared incentives (Chandra and Staiger (2007)). Related work highlights the role of “pioneer” physicians and opinion leaders in shaping local adoption patterns, particularly when new technologies or drugs enter the market (Agha and Molitor (2018)). These studies demonstrate how social learning can generate clustered adoption, path dependence, and persistent regional variation in care.
More recent research expands the notion of learning from others to include formal sources of information, such as clinical guidelines, research trials, and performance feedback. Dubois and Tuncel (2021) shows how scientific information and recommendations influence prescribing behavior, while also documenting heterogeneity in physician responses. Together, this body of work underscores that learning from others is neither frictionless nor uniform: physicians differ in whom they observe, how they interpret signals, and how social information interacts with their own experience. This perspective provides a natural bridge to subsequent discussions of organizational structure and market forces in healthcare.
Potential papers for presentation today include:
- Agha and Molitor (2018) — the role of pioneer investigators in technology adoption
- Dubois and Tuncel (2021) — physician responses to scientific information and recommendations