Why do some parents refuse to vaccinate their children? Why do some
people keep guns at home, despite scientific evidence of risk to their
family members? And why do people use antibiotics for illnesses they
cannot possibly alleviate? When it comes to health, many people insist
that science is wrong, that the evidence is incomplete, and that
unidentified hazards lurk everywhere. In_ Denying to the Grave_,
Gorman and Gorman, a father-daughter team, explore the psychology of
health science denial. Using several examples of such denial as test
cases, they propose six key principles that may lead individuals to
reject "accepted" health-related wisdom: the charismatic leader; fear
of complexity; confirmation bias and the internet; fear of corporate
and government conspiracies; causality and filling the ignorance gap;
and the nature of risk prediction. The authors argue that the health
sciences are especially vulnerable to our innate resistance to
integrate new concepts with pre-existing beliefs. This psychological
difficulty of incorporating new information is on the cutting edge of
neuroscience research, as scientists continue to identify brain
responses to new information that reveal deep-seated, innate
discomfort with changing our minds. _Denying to the Grave_ explores
risk theory and how people make decisions about what is best for them
and their loved ones, in an effort to better understand how people
think when faced with significant health decisions. This book points
the way to a new and important understanding of how science should be
conveyed to the public in order to save lives with existing knowledge
and technology.
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Why We Ignore the Facts That Will Save Us
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780199396627
Publisert
2020
Utgiver
Vendor
Oxford University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter