Gawande reports that research has shown that patients commonly prefer to have others make their decisions for them. Though as many as 65 percent of people surveyed say that if they were to get cancer, they would want to choose their own treatment, in fact, among people who do get cancer, only 12 percent actually want to do so.
In "The Paradox of Choice," Barry Schwartz discusses how people's preferences regarding decision-making can often differ from their actual behaviors. He highlights research by Gawande indicating that while a significant majority of individuals claim they would want to make their own treatment choices if diagnosed with cancer, the reality is quite different when faced with such a situation.
In fact, Gawande found that only a small fraction—12 percent—of cancer patients actually desire to make their treatment decisions themselves, contradicting the 65 percent who claim they want to do so in surveys. This discrepancy illustrates a tendency among patients to prefer others to guide their decisions during stressful times, suggesting that autonomy may not always be as appealing in practice as it is in theory.
