Overview

With science denial as a rising danger to public health, Sara E. Gorman and Jack M. Gorman analyze society's resistance to scientific evidence relating to health and safety, and the tools to combat these tendencies.Why do some parents decide not to vaccinate their children? Why do some people keep guns at home, despite ample evidence that doing so increases the risk of a gun-related injury? And why do people use antibiotics for illnesses that antibiotics cannot possibly alleviate? When it comes to health, many people believe that science is wrong, that the evidence is incomplete, and that unidentified hazards lurk everywhere.In Denying to the Grave, Sara Gorman and Jack Gorman explore the psychology of health science denial. Using several examples as case studies, they propose six key principles that may lead people to reject ""accepted"" health-related wisdom: the charismatic leader; fear of complexity; confirmation bias; fear of corporate and government conspiracies; causality and filling the ignorance gap; and the nature of risk prediction. This fully updated and expanded new edition of Denying to the Grave reviews the most recent research on health science denial, offering a brand new chapter on how the contemporary ""assault on science"" waged by certain political administrations has eroded public trust in national health and science agencies, such as CDC, FDA, and EPA. Also new to this edition is a chapter investigating the relationship between health crises and misinformation, and what happens to science denial amidst a global public health crisis. Finally, the book proposes a novel approach to counteracting misinformation and improving our ability to understand and accept scientific consensus. In an era in which trust in science has become more important, and yet more elusive, than ever before, Denying to the Grave sheds light on why we often choose to ignore scientific evidence, pointing the way toward a new understanding of how science should be conveyed to the public in order to save lives with existing knowledge and technology.

Full Product Details

9780197547458

Table of Contents

Reviews

Praise for the first edition In this superb book, Sara E. Gorman (project manager, Johnson & Johnson Global Public Health) and psychiatrist Jack M. Gorman (CEO & chief scientific officer, Franklin Behavioral Health; The Essential Guide to Psychiatric Drugs) collaborate to explain why many people deny scientifically established facts, even in the face of compelling evidence...Perfect for fans of the subject and Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow. --Library Journal, Starred Review Perhaps a new book, Denying to the Grave by public health specialists (a father and daughter team) Sara Gorman and Jack Gorman, can help us understand why facts and statistics fall on deaf ears time and time again...The book is thoughtful, exploring the psychology, neurobiology and evolutionary roots that underpin some of our decision-making, which can make adaptive behaviour maladaptive. --New Scientist In [Denying to the Grave], the Gormans explain not just how people fall for the false claims of politicians, but also how intelligent people wind up in cults or why a nation wracked by gun violence continues to reject gun-control measure... [The Gormans are] equal opportunity debunkers, taking on GMO fear-mongering and anti-vaxers along with the National Rifle Association. --The Atlantic Why do so many cling to beliefs that run counter to evidence? Sara Gorman, a public health expert, and Jack Gorman, a psychiatrist, investigate the psychological factors that lead to such self-defeating denial of facts and conclude that normal, evolutionarily adaptive tendencies act against us. --Scientific American A thought-provoking and entertaining examination of science denial focusing on the reasons that some of us are prone to developing opinions that are not supported by science and then hold on to these opinions in the face of evidence to the contrary. The authors' use of research to back up their arguments provides rigor while their use of anecdotes and stories makes the text more approachable. Ultimately, the marriage of these concepts, along with the lively narrative throughout the text, leads to an intriguing and timely resource during this time of political upheaval and the ensuing challenges in civil discourse. This text is appropriate for a wide audience. --PsycCRITIQUES

Author Information

Sara E. Gorman, PhD, MPH, is a public health and behavioral science expert and has written extensively about global health, science communication, psychology, and mental health, among other topics. Dr. Gorman's work has appeared in or been covered by TIME, The New Yorker, Science, Psychology Today, The Atlantic, the BBC, and NPR. She is also co-founder and CEO of Critica, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving public acceptance of science, counteracting misinformation about science and health, and increasing the use of scientific evidence in public policymaking. Jack M. Gorman, MD, served on the faculty of Columbia University's Department of Psychiatry for over 25 years, eventually serving as Lieber Professor of Psychiatry. He then became the Esther and Joseph Klingenstein Professor and Chair of Psychiatry and Professor of Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He is currently CEO and Chief Scientific Officer, Franklin Behavioral Health Consultants. He is also the co-founder and president of Critica, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving public acceptance of science, counteracting misinformation about science and health, and increasing the use of scientific evidence in public policymaking.

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