Survey provides no evidence that medical students turn cynical and unaltruistic

Medical schools have been accused of turning altruistic young people into cynics more interested in money. To test this accusation Petrie et al asked 520 Auckland medical students at various stages of the course what they would wish for if granted three wishes (p 1593). The three most popular categories of wishes were for happiness (34%), for money (32%), and altruistic wishes (31%). Rates of altruistic wishes did not vary over the courseand nor did those for money. Women were more likely to make altruistic, intimacy, and happiness wishes and men to make sexual ones.

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Photographic memory, money, and liposuction: survey of medical students' wish lists

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