In contemporary U.S. doctor's series, the characters are usually represented by good-looking or typical character actors. The aim of our pilot study was to investigate whether the long-term impact of this format on German television viewers could have an influence on the choice of doctor in Germany. Two different groups of people anticipating TV consumption patterns were questioned: a first group of younger adults who knew theTV series was asked to judge their doctor choice using a web-based survey tool with respect to three criteria (sympathy, expertise and own treatment preference). The second group of adults beyond the 40th year of life who need not know theTV series were shown photos of the serial figures. Study participants should select the "doctor" of which they would most likely want to be treated and this based on two predetermined reasons (sympathy or expertise). Our results indicate that stereotypical images of doctors found high approval only in the first group of people, while the participants in the second group decided in majorityfora more realistic representation of average appearance.
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