50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True

by Harrison, Guy P.

  Beware of confirmation bias. Most conspiracy theories depend on it to accumulate believers. Do not embrace every bit of information that supports a particular conspiracy claim while rejecting everything that contradicts it. Remember that we are naturally drawn to explanations that fit with our prior conclusions and beliefs. You have to fight against this tendency if you want to think clearly and make rational decisions about what to believe.

  The more unusual and complex a conspiracy claim is, the more good evidence you should expect to see before believing it.

  GLORIFIED GOSSIP

  I suspect that the popularity of conspiracy theories also has a lot to do with our obsession with gossip as well. If you haven't been paying attention, take a good look the next time you pass a newsstand. Celebrity magazines, essentially vehicles for gossip, are booming. Gossip is big business because it's an integral part of human interactions. All those who say they can resist listening to or passing on a juicy bit of gossip are lying—and we should call them liars behind their backs. To gossip is to be human. Anthropologically speaking, it probably helps us bond and helps us predict who we can trust and who we can't. Based on this, I think most conspiracy theories qualify as glorified gossip. The big ones are just like rumors about the neighbors or the new stranger in town, only multiplied and amplified a thousand times. If this is right, then conspiracy theories probably aren't going away anytime soon because some researchers think our brains are genetically or culturally predisposed to download and spread juicy information about others.2 Listening excitedly to the dirt on someone and then passing it on to a friend the first chance we get is not abnormal behavior. It's who we are. It's what we do.

  GO WHERE THE EVIDENCE LEADS

  Not all, but many conspiracy believers seem to have lost perspective. The more passionate ones are locked into their conclusions more out of loyalty to a position than anything else. When they should be pursuing real evidence and true answers, no matter where the trail leads, they have instead dug in and refuse to budge no matter what evidence and counterarguments come along. This is not an intellectually respectable strategy, one I encourage them to reconsider. I certainly don't care about being lined up for or against any particular conspiracy theory. I just want to be aligned with the truth—no matter what that truth may be.

  GO DEEPER…

  Books

  Aaronovitch, David. Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History. New York: Riverhead Books, 2010.

  Goldwag, Arthur. Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societies: The Straight Scoop on Freemasons, the Illuminati, Skull and Bones, Black Helicopters, the New World Order, and Many, Many More. New York: Vintage, 2009.

  Popular Mechanics editors. Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand Up to the Facts. New York: Hearst, 2006.

  Other Sources

  911 myths, www.911myths.com.

  Polidoro, Mossimo. “Facts and Fiction in the Kennedy Assassination.” Skeptical Inquirer 29, no. 1 (January/February 2005). www.csicop.org/si/show/facts_and_fiction_in_the_kennedy_assassination/.

  Popular Mechanics editors. “Debunking the 9/11 Myths: Special Report.” Popular Mechanics, February 3, 2005. www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/news/1227842.

  Radford, Benjamin. “Top Ten Conspiracy Theories.” Live Science, May 19, 2008. www.livescience.com/11375-top-ten-conspiracy-theories-934.html.

  There is a fundamental flaw that runs through virtually all reasoning about alternative medicine. It is simply this: the body is likely to heal itself in time, regardless of what you do. This means whatever you are doing at the time of this natural healing will receive undue credit for the improvement.

  —Hank Davis, Caveman Logic

  Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own thoughts unguarded.

  —The Buddha

  While any irrational belief may contain inherent risks, some are more dangerous than others. For example, believing in Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster is relatively harmless compared to believing in a real monster called alternative medicine. No amusing sideshow, this belief drains trillions of dollars from customers and sometimes even kills them. Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is a strange mix of safe, dangerous, effective, ineffective, and just plain weird treatments. Many CAM treatments do great harm to people directly or by leading people away from science-based treatments that might have helped them. In a later chapter on homeopathic medicine I include the story of a baby who died an agonizing death from septic shock. The child was treated with homeopathic medicines (magic water) all the way to the bitter end by parents who rejected medical science and put their faith in alternative medicine. A 2008 Harvard study estimated that more than 365,000 people suffered premature deaths from AIDS unnecessarily in South Africa between 2000 and 2005 because of government policies that rejected science-based treatments in favor of alternative treatments.1 According to the study, the South African government diverted attention away from antiretroviral drugs that were tested and proven to be effective and promoted unscientific remedies, such as lemon juice, beetroot, and garlic.2 Have no doubt; CAM kills.

  It is important to define complementary and alternative medicine because I have found that many people have no idea what the terms refer to. It's just medicine and healthcare, some assume, no different from medical science. It's probably best to understand CAM for what it is not rather than what it is.

  Alternative medicine differs from science-based medicine in one very important way: it has not been proven to work using scientific testing methods. CAM is outside of the system that produced the drugs and treatments that have extended life spans and improved the quality of life dramatically for so many people last century. This does not necessarily mean that all alternative medicines and treatments are ineffective. Some of them may work very well—but good luck figuring out which ones!

  The problem is that we can't know for sure which drug or treatment works as promised until it is proven with proper scientific testing, but if an alternative medicine or treatment is shown to be effective by credible scientific testing, then it would become part of modern medical science and no longer be an alternative medicine or treatment. Therefore, alternative medicine in the context of healthcare really means nothing more than “unproven” by the standards of proper science. In order to be profitable and to survive in the marketplace, alternative medicines and treatments must rely, not on cold hard data, but rather on tradition, marketing, and anecdotal evidence (individual stories and word-of-mouth referrals).

  None of this is meant to suggest that medical science and evidence-based healthcare get it right 100 percent of the time. Far from it. Some “tested and proven” medicines are not tested properly or well enough, are not prescribed safely, or were compromised by incompetence or profit/ethics issues and end up causing more problems than they solve. Every year, tens of thousands of people are injured or die of complications from evidence-based, tested, and regulated drugs and treatments. But this is not a sensible reason to reject medical science and turn to CAM. If anything, I would hope that one would view the very serious problems with modern medical science as only more reason to avoid the largely unregulated and fraud-riddled world of CAM. If we can't even trust tested, regulated, and scientific health treatments all the time, why would anyone choose to risk his or her safety with untested, unregulated, and pseudoscientific health treatments? It should be no surprise that medical science and mainstream healthcare fall far short of perfection. How could it not with humans involved? What is important to understand, however, is that there is at least a good chance, a reasonable hope, that a particular drug or treatment on the evidence-based side of healthcare was produced by a process based on science, was tested, and is more likely to be safe and effective. Across the border, over in the land of alternative medicine, the risks of a treatment being ineffective or dangerous skyrocket because anything goes.

  I have always found the popular attraction to unproven and unregulated m
edicine odd. If more people understood what it means for a drug or a treatment to be outside of modern medical science, I suspect that CAM might lose a lot of fans. I wouldn't want to drive a car or eat a candy bar that wasn't tested and regulated in some way. I certainly don't want to put untested and unregulated medicine into my body when I'm sick. Yet millions of people are willing to trust mysterious pills and potions that could have just about anything in them and do just about anything to the human body. The popularity of this stuff is staggering. A national study found that 38.3 percent of adult Americans (83 million) and 11.8 percent of children (8.5 million under age eighteen) accounted for $33.9 billion out-of-pocket spending (not paid by insurance companies) for CAM treatments and consultations with practitioners in 2007.3 Nearly three billion dollars alone was spent on homeopathic medicines that many doctors and scientists view as nothing more than very expensive water.4

  WHY PEOPLE TRUST ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE

  Natural. Alternative medicine is often touted as being “natural.” The assumption being that this means they are safer and more in tune with your body than chemicals in plastic capsules that were manufactured in a grim, windowless factory somewhere. But the reality is that the claim of “natural” by itself means nothing in the context of medicine. “Natural” does not necessarily mean a treatment works or is safe for you. Rattle snake venom is natural, but I wouldn't want to drink it. Malaria is natural, still not much fun. Water is natural but it doesn't cure diabetes. One should also be aware that many of the top-selling CAM products are not exactly cooked up in grandma's kitchen using the finest natural ingredients. They come from big factories too.

  Tradition. Many alternative medicines tap into our fondness for the good old days, simpler ways of doing things, and especially the lure of ancient wisdom. But, just like the “natural” claim, old or traditional does not necessarily mean safe and effective. Bloodletting was a traditional treatment, but I wouldn't recommend giving up a few precious pints if you come down with the flu.

  A study of women in Pakistan who delayed seeking treatment after being referred for care after lumps were discovered in their breasts found that 34 percent of these women delayed seeking proper medical treatment because they relied on traditional treatments. Of these treatments, homeopathy was most common (70 percent), followed by “spiritual therapy” (15 percent). “The delay results in significant worsening of the disease process,” concluded the researchers.5 CAM kills.

  A study in Africa found that a significant number of acute renal failure cases (rapid kidney failure) are caused by reliance on traditional or folk remedies. This is another example of death by alternative healthcare: “In conclusion, ARF [acute renal failure] occurring after use of folk remedies in South Africa is associated with significant morbidity and mortality [italics added]…. Significantly, although a proportion of patients have underlying systemic or renal conditions that may contribute to renal dysfunction, in the majority of patients, folk remedy use appears to be the most likely proximate cause.”6

  Clearly traditional medicine fails millions of people when modern, science-based medicine could have given them a better chance.

  Cheapness. Not that all CAM treatments are inexpensive, but many are and this is explains some of the appeal. When a poor person is sick, an unproven $5 herbal “cure” is likely to sound a lot more attractive than a $75 visit to a doctor who may prescribe a proven $100 medication. If people were more informed and understood that wasting $5 only leaves them with the same problem they started with, they might make better choices. In many circumstances, however, people simply can't afford evidence-based medicine, or it's not available to them where they live. In these cases the particular society and the world at large have a moral issue that needs to be addressed. It's bad enough when people choose snake oil because they are not skeptical and don't think critically. It's far worse when the conditions they live in leave them no choice.

  Fear factor. A huge advantage CAM has over science-based medicine is that it's not nearly as scary. If I'm sick or injured, I will choose to go with modern medical science, but there is no denying that a visit to a hospital can feel a lot like being sent to a torture chamber. In hospitals people jam needles into your skin; they suck fluids out of your body; they probe and peer into very personal places using scary metal instruments; sometimes they even cut you open and take things out of you. Yes, these procedures are great because they save lives all around the world every day. But they horrify most people who experience them, nonetheless. Now, consider what is entailed with virtually all alternative medical treatments: you pop a sugar pill, drink a shake made from some plant, or maybe just wear a magnetic bracelet. It's the path of least resistance, far more appealing and comfortable than cold surgical instruments, chemotherapy, or drugs with severe side effects. Well, more appealing right up until your untreated illness kills you, I suppose.

  Safety. It may be a surprise to some, but in many cases alternative medicines really are safer and do have less side effects than science-based medicines. But the reason for this is because many alternative medicines contain no significant ingredients and don't do anything! For example, a typical homeopathic medicine truly is safe and really doesn't cause side effects. But that is only because it's water! One wonders if there is any limit to the absurdity of alternative medicine. I fully expect to see somebody selling pills filled with air one day soon. They will say the natural and safe air in the capsules is magnetized or some nonsense and claim that it cures cancer, Alzheimer's, and other diseases. And people will buy it. Wait and see.

  Trust issues. A general mistrust of governments and corporations probably adds to the appeal of alternative medicine. A 2010 Gallup poll found that nearly half of Americans rate the work of pharmaceutical companies as no better than fair or poor.7 That's fertile ground for CAM to work in. Everyone knows that modern medicine in the United States is big business and treating human beings often seems like a trivial concern next to profit. The mystery for me in this is, however, why anyone who finds it difficult to trust the for-profit evidence-based medical industry would run into the open arms of the for-profit unscientific CAM industry. They're big business and they care a whole lot about profits too. Given the frauds, dubious claims, and dishonest advertising that is rampant in the alternative healthcare industry, why in the world would anyone trust them more than evidence-based healthcare?

  Frustration. There simply is too much frustration with modern healthcare. Some of it is justified. Some of it is unjustified yet understandable. If someone is suffering, she wants relief and she wants it fast. Many parents of autistic children, for example, are unwilling to wait on science to catch up to their personal and immediate crisis. In 2011, as many as 75 percent of autistic children were receiving unscientific alternative treatments, most of which were obviously bogus.8 Understanding the desperate circumstances some people face, however, doesn't excuse anyone from forsaking reason.

  Too many patients today feel rushed, confused about their illness and treatment, and even dehumanized by their journeys through healthcare systems. This is a serious issue with significant implications for the CAM problem. While promoting critical thinking and skepticism are important, of course, I suspect that a large part of the solution to the problem of unscientific healthcare, fraud, and medical quackery has to come from improving the overall experience of today's science-based healthcare. We are human beings, and as such we bring all kinds of fears and emotional needs with us into the doctor's office. We are not robots in need of an oil change, and the health workers who make up modern healthcare have to keep this in mind. Modern medicine can learn a thing or two from the CAM culture. Clearly alternative medicine must be providing something for all these people who keep throwing away billions of dollars and risking their health on it year after year. Maybe the modern-day shamans and snake oil salesmen simply do a better job of inspiring hope and connecting with sick people as “people” rather than something called “patients.”

  Effec
tiveness…sort of. Undoubtedly CAM maintains much of its popularity and generates most of those word-of-mouth endorsements via the placebo effect and fortunate timing. It's well known that taking some form of treatment, no matter how impotent it is, often helps a significant percentage of patients even though the inert medicine could not have done anything to directly treat the ailment. One may argue that alternative medicines are worthwhile, even if most of them can do no better than placebos, because that's still better than nothing. But this is not necessarily true. A placebo might make one feel better, for example, but it's not necessarily going to help with the actual problem in every case.

  No doubt fortunate timing and faulty analysis explains many CAM success stories too. Imagine a sick person who takes some alternative medicine and then, after a week or so, has a full recovery. Chances are the person will credit the alternative treatment even though their body probably recovered on its own naturally. CAM believers also are likely to credit alternative treatments even when they were taking science-based drugs or treatments at the same time and could not possibly know which of them was responsible for their recovery.

  GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE

  Imagine if we could compile a list of every person whose life was saved over the last fifty years by vaccines, antibiotics, and other science-based healthcare. Imagine a headshot next to each name. I suspect that just one glimpse of such a massive compilation might change the minds of many people who trust in unscientific treatments. It seems few people today appreciate the amount of suffering and shocking death rates of the past. Everyone should do a tour of the developing world for a different perspective. Those of us fortunate enough to live in the wealthier societies today are shielded from diseases in ways we take for granted. Those who sell, buy, and defend alternative medicine seem to think they have no need of science-based healthcare. I certainly harbor no such illusions. I'm a huge fan of modern medicine—primarily because it has probably saved my life at least twenty times by now. I've stayed in some hotels that were so infested with germs, plants, spores, and critters that I swear the walls and floor seemed to move. I've eaten more than my share of weird and risky meals on the road (some of them seemed to be moving as well). My coddled-American immune system has also been up close and personal with all kinds of people in all kinds of places. If not for vaccines and antibiotics it's possible, if not likely, that I would have been whacked by a germ long ago.