“Consider-the-Opposite” Debiasing to Improve Self-Assessment Accuracy in Anesthesiology Trainees: A Prospective Pretest-Posttest Study

Accurate self-assessments enhance learning and patient care, yet resident physicians self-assess poorly. We therefore tested the effects of a consider-the-opposite (CTO) cognitive debiasing technique on self-assessment accuracy among anesthesiology residents. Trainees self-assessed their technical skills and communication/leadership abilities, then completed a CTO intervention before repeating self-assessments. Postintervention, technical skills self-assessment accuracy remained unchanged (1.00%, 95% confidence interval [CI], -7.46% to 10.0%). Communication/leadership self-assessment accuracy improved by 5.63% (95% CI 0.001%-16.9%), but this did not meet our prespecified threshold for a meaningful effect. These findings do not suggest a compelling effect of this CTO intervention on self-assessment accuracy among trainees.