40% of physicians admitted that they had some type of bias with regard to patients.Within the top 10 of those who expressed some degree of bias were physicians who had the most direct contact with patients: emergency medicine physicians (62%), orthopedists (50%), and psychiatrists (48%), followed by family physicians and ob/gyns (47%). Two of the specialties least likely to report bias were those also least likely to be directly involved with patients: pathologists (10%) and radiologists (22%), Cardiologists were also in the bottom three and reported a percentage of bias equivalent to that reported by radiologists.

The two characteristics that garnered the largest responses were emotional problems (62% of men and women) and weight (52% of all physicians). Other characteristics that were major bias triggers for physicians were intelligence (44%), language differences (32%), and insurance coverage (23%). When asked to add other triggers verbally, physicians most frequently cited drug-seeking and abuse. Also mentioned very frequently were malingering, entitled, and noncompliant patients. Of interest, patients with chronic pain also evoked bias in many physicians

Source: Bias and Burnout: Evil Twins