It's Nice to Be Nice to the Nice
There appears a gap between who students claim to hold as models and who the students actually appear to imitate.
From Imitation and Education by Bryan Warnick:
In one study of medical schools (Wright, S.M., et al., 1998), students were surveyed to find out who functioned as their professional role models and exemplars. Students generally responded by saying that doctors who displayed enthusiasm, compassion, openness, integrity, and caring relationships with patients were their models (I will label these physicians as "people-oriented" physicians). When anthropologists observe the actual practices of medical students, however, there appears a gap between who students claim to hold as models and who the students actually appear to imitate. Instead of imitating the favorable traits of compassion and openness, students instead focus on "status-oriented" values. Paice, Heard, and Moss discuss the work of Simon Sinclair and worry about his finding that students imitate physicians who have responsibility, power, and prestige. The students, they find, were 'not impressed by doctors who seemed to share their power and responsibility with other professionals.' They continue: 'These observations suggest a divergence between the qualities that students and young doctors say they seek in their role models and the qualities that they actually emulate.'
