Naturopathy vs. Science: Prenatal Vitamins

sciencebasedmedicine.org

7 pointstokenadult3 comments

Reminds me of this[1] Clickhole article that I found quite funny.

I don't quite understand the (scary) propensity towards believing outrageous claims made by non-experts with no scientific review or consensus in many fields - especially medicine. It almost seems that people want to believe these claims. Is it a desire to know more than someone else?

Does anyone know the psychology behind it?

[1] http://www.clickhole.com/blogpost/my-doctor-told-me-i-should...

I think part of it is desperation. If someone is diagnosed with an incurable or untreatable disease or condition, then it's natural to try to look for some sort of treatment that will yield better results.

That means applying less skepticism towards "alternative" therapies.

Then you also have the following working against science: - Confirmation bias - Mistaking coincidence with causation - Overly aggressive pattern matching

For people who are interested in this type of thing, I recommend listening to the Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast. I've listened for a few years now, and it is a fun/funny way to learn about science, critical thinking, and debunking bad science like this.

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