Lately, it seems like a lot of discussion on radio shows, during Q&A sessions, and in the classes I teach is about why people are so upset when they hear new information about diet, health, and medicine. People often become hostile and nasty instead of being curious and asking questions. They walk out of the room, write hateful emails, refuse to engage in civil conversation, and in some cases, make disparaging comments about the person or persons who bring up the information.
I’m used to this, and it does not bother me anymore. I learned that hostility is a common response to information that interferes with an individual’s belief system, and this is a good sign that I’m talking about the right things. My goal, after all, is to change beliefs about diet, health, and medicine. Over the years, I’ve developed a thick skin and will keep informing people of the truth regardless of the backlash.
I’m writing this article because some of you ARE bothered when people are not receptive to new information. You tend to think something is wrong with you, and can even start questioning the things you know to be true. I want you to feel good about sharing science-based information and understand the reasons for the backlash. It has nothing to do with you.
The backlash is because of confirmation bias, which means the tendency to like information that conforms to a person’s current beliefs and to reject information that contradicts them. Confirmation bias is one of the most well-studied forms of faulty thinking, and articles about it appear regularly in newspapers, magazines, and medical journals.
Here’s how confirmation bias works. If people want an idea or strategy to be truthful, they believe it is. And people put surprisingly little thought into many of the beliefs they have. Beliefs are often developed in response to a limited amount of information or sometimes in response to no information. Just being told something by a person or a few people who an individual holds in high esteem is enough for many people to form opinions and beliefs about many things. Once set, they believe there is no reason to continue gathering new information. Instead, information that conforms with their particular belief is considered “right,” while information that contradicts their belief is considered “wrong.”