Sutton's law

Sutton's law

Decision-making A guideline evoked to temper the enthusiasm of externs–US medical students in their 3^rd and 4^th yrs of school–and other novices in clinical medicine, who want to 'work up' a condition–eg, an acute abdomen for porphyria, metastatic medulloblastoma or other esoterica, while ignoring a particular symptom's more common causes; the 'law' is attributed to the noted bank robber, Willie Sutton who, when asked why he robbed banks, reportedly replied, '..that's where the money is'; to apply Sutton's law then, is to search for the most likely cause of a symptom–ie, to go where the 'money' is. See Hoofbeats. Cf Red herring, 'Zebras.'.