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How to Enjoy Your Decision
5/22/13 -
Inside the Mind of a Psychopath
5/14/13
Americans get a stream of messages telling them to avoid vaccines, from Jenny McCarthy on Oprah to billboard animations shown in Times Square. The responsible solution—fight back with forceful pro-vaccine messaging, right?
Actually, fighting fire with fire may backfire, according to a study in the journal Health Psychology.
Researchers asked over 100 participants to imagine parenting an eight-month old as they read about a pretend illness. In the scenario, their doctor advised that the child be vaccinated against the disease—after which subjects were shown typical anti-vaccine warnings that described how vaccines compromise the infant’s immune system.
Researchers then showed the participants two reassuring statements that vaccines pose little risk. Half the participants read: “There is only sporadic evidence that repeated vaccinations overwhelm the immune system.” The other half read: “There is no evidence that repeated vaccinations overwhelm the immune system.”
Those who were told there was no evidence for risk reported greater concern about vaccination and less intention to vaccinate their child than those who read the moderate messaging. The effect intensified when the messaging came from a perceived untrustworthy source, like a pharma company. So a softer sell may make a harder impression.
—Christie Nicholson
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]
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9 Comments
Add CommentPossibly because when it says "no evidence" this can imply it has never been fully explored or, for people apt to believe in conspiracies, a cover up. The basic statement "there is no evidence of pink elephants" is easily followed up with "have you ever looked?"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA follow up study could explore different ways of phrasing "no evidence" such as "no trustworthy evidence." The alternative wording would both state there is no evidence as well as shed doubt on any "evidence" put forth by anti-vaccine proponents.
Aaron3 has a good point. Another possibility is that when uninformed people hear "vaccines bad" on one side and "no evidence that vaccines are bad" on the other, they have no way to make a decision and they probably lean toward a do-nothing approach. But if they hear that there is "only sporadic evidence that vaccines are bad" they could think "OK, the anti-vaccination people are reacting to the sporadic evidence but they don't know that the majority of evidence is in favor of vaccines." "Sporadic evidence" explains why someone could be against vaccines and also be wrong.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm frankly astonished at the kinds of nonsense that is being pushed at people nowadays, and the sheer gullibility of the general public. India already has universities providing 4-year degrees in Homeopathy. I shudder to think what would happen to our anti-Polio vaccination campaign if those anti-vac nutters decide to focus on India.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis article brings to light two major flaws with regard to how the medical establishment and media package and present this issue.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1st - Parents are not concerned about vaccine safety because of celebrity attention. Vaccines most certainly come with risk. The gaps in vaccine safety knowledge are well established for example the recent Institute of Medicine Immunization Safety Review acknowledged there is not enough quality vaccine science in the medical literature to determine whether or not many of the vaccines routinely given to children and adults cause more than 100 different types of brain and immune system dysfunction. IOM found that, out of 158 serious brain and immune system disorders reportedly associated with eight different commonly used vaccines, there were either no studies or too few methodologically sound studies to make a causation determination either way for 135 (85%) of them. Collectively, Americans are demanding informed consent. Who on earth would be comfortable handing over a healthy child with these types of gaps in vaccine safety science? The truth is there is no answer for these concerns because there is not science exploring the question. Consumers are beginning to demand that these gaps be filled. We have a right to know what the true risk/benefit is before we turn our babies over to be vaccinated under force by state mandates that must be met in order for our children to be allowed to access a public education.
2nd - Continuing to call those with concerns regarding vaccine safety “anti-vaccine” and claiming that vaccines have been proven safe is simply a propaganda ploy and many Americans are intelligent enough to recognize that. Typically those smacked with this label in the public forum are those who fully vaccinated their child until something went terribly wrong. Americans don’t appreciate seeing those who intelligently question a consumer product or choose to exercise their personal right to reject that product vilified with labels, especially when that product effects the health and well being of our children and the product is mandated my the state. This tactic breeds a sense of distrust and leaves the consumer asking,“why the defensiveness and heavy handedness?”
The medical establishment and government have painted themselves into a very difficult corner. Continuing to stand behind the smoke and mirrors they have created and lashing out at those who simply want to do what is best for their children is not going to solve their problem of rebuilding trust the nation's vaccine program.
The crop circle (alien) messages warns about liers. Much pain ...still time . Prepare to kiss your a$$ good-bye.Don't worry ....millions will survive.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"I shudder to think what would happen to our anti-Polio vaccination campaign if those anti-vac nutters decide to focus on India."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisReally? Maybe you should do a little research...You'll find that the majority of the paralytic polio cases in India have been caused by the very vaccine that is meant to prevent it! This information does not come from some random anti-vac nutter or anti-vaccine zelot. It comes directly from those administering the vaccine program in India. While the wild polio virus may be stopped by the vaccine it is being replaced with VDPV (Vaccine Dervived Polio Virus). The same thing is happening in Nigera.
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-204_162-5242168.html
Please do not think that the above link is my "only" source for my claims above. You can do you own research. I just provided it to show that information is out there and has been reported on.
Excellent post! In my case, I had said I didn't want my daughter to get the amazingly useless, devastatingly dangerous hepatitis-B vaccine at the hospital when she was born, but they gave it to her without asking permission, and she reacted with four days and nights of endless screaming, vaccine-induced encephalitis, and was later diagnosed with autism. I had both arms paralyzed for two days by a tetanus booster, brachial plexus neuropathy, and later develped MS. I am angry about the way vaccines are pushed as though they were candy, with little or no recognition of the considerable risks involved in getting even one, much less thirty or forty of them. And the pro-vaccine people routinely insult me and say that I am lying. Yeah, me and and the other several hundred thousand of us who know that we have been damaged by vaccines. Since everyone now knows vaccine-damaged children, they're on every block in America, the pro-vax people need to abandon their effort to figure out how to reassure people into submitting, but figure out the extent to which vaccines are hurting rather than helping, and drastically rework their message. They will have to accept that a lot of people are going to refuse to take the risk for themselves or their children, and in a supposedly free country, that's just the way it has to be.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI concur, doctors in India are saying that the 36,000 children paralyzed there in 2011 AFTER receiving the polio vaccine (the more dangerous oral one, of course, no longer used in the First World), were paralyzed as a result of damage caused by the vaccine itself.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI agree that it's a pity they must use a dangerous version of the vaccine, efforts should be made to give them the more effective one. But still, that children died from it isn't compelling if a lot more children would die from not taking the vax.
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