Posted by John Ager on 18 January 2013.
I have often wondered why it is so difficult to debunk the myths that exist about medical malpractice claims (i.e. driving physician out of business, raising insurance rates, eating up health care dollars) when even the studies performed by the health care industry do not bear them out. There has been a lot of research about why people believe what they believe and why they hold onto those beliefs even in the face of overwhelming, credible, contradictory information. A a study recently released by Psychological Science in the Public Interest found that one reason false information tends to stick with us is that we are just plain lazy.
This probably does not come as much of a shock. We simply do not take the time to thoughtfully evaluate much of the information which provides the framework for, and substance of, our belief systems. When we do, we pay attention to but a few features of the information, such as whether it fits into the paradigm we already know. Particularly troublesome is the fact that information which conforms to our pre-existing beliefs or point of view is what the researchers call “especially sticky,” regardless of its truth.
Not surprisingly, the researchers also concluded that the prevalence of wrongly held beliefs negatively impacts society. For example, while there is no question that global warming as the result of human activity is a scientific fact, 33% of Americans still don’t believe it. Unfortunately, the tendency to simply accept information regardless of its truth could significantly impact political and social decisions in a way which may harm our society. For example, it may already be too late to do anything to contain global warming, yet the drumbeat against it existence still echos loud and clear. Similarly, the erroneous belief that medical malpractice claims are bad for society has led to the placement of draconian limitations on remedies for the serious harms caused by bad medicine and stymied reforms that might improve the quality of medical care. Ultimately, society must bear the burden of the consequence of those harms rather than the wrongdoer.
As long as intellectual laziness is a problem, misinformation and its consequences will be a problem. We need to wake up and evaluate what we read, see and hear!