Half Of All Americans Believe In Medical Conspiracy Theories

Half Of All Americans Believe In Medical Conspiracy Theories

According to a study conducted by the University of Chicago and published in the Jama Internal Medicine, almost 50 percent of all Americans believe in a form of medical conspiracy theories.

The study says that 49 percent of all questioned subjects believed in at least one of the many variations of medical related conspiracy theories. According to the study 37% of questioned subjects believe that the FDA is limiting access to natural cures for cancer because of drug companies’ pressure.

Another 20 percent believe that doctors insist on vaccines even though they are aware that they cause autism and other psychological problems for  children. Researchers that worked on the study said that while it may be easy to deem people who believe in conspiracy theories as “paranoid cranks”, new data suggests that these conspiracy theories are widely known and broadly endorsed.

Researchers added to their report that doctors need to be aware of this when examining patients in order to give the best medical attention possible. They also added that more information on health and science must reach the public, especially as scientific thinking is not an intuitive way of thinking for most uneducated people. This may lead to baseless rejection of proven scientific data by patients who will suffer in the long run.

Posted by George Daniels on Saturday March 22 2014, 5:57 AM EST. Ref: rttnews. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0