Half Of Americans Believe In Medical Conspiracy Theories : Shots - Health News Despite evidence to the contrary, many Americans believe cellphones cause cancer and that health officials are covering it up. Discredited theories about vaccines and fluoridation also remain popular.
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Half Of Americans Believe In Medical Conspiracy Theories

Twenty percent of Americans think that cellphones cause cancer and that the government and big corporations are covering this up. iStockphoto hide caption

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Misinformation about health remains widespread and popular.



"One of the things that struck us is that people who embrace these beliefs are not less health conscious," says Eric Oliver, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago who led the study. "They're just less likely to embrace traditional medicine."

Oliver was studying political conspiracy theories when he realized that quite a few of them involved medical care, including vaccine avoidance and a vote rejecting water fluoridation in Portland, Ore.



And though the people who said they believed the conspiracy theories tended to be less educated, poorer and members of minority groups, they aren't conspiracy nuts, Oliver says. And they aren't ignoring their health. Instead, they are normal people trying to make sense of complex issues.

Corporations and government institutions are complicated organizations with a lot of different motivations. "Public mistrust is understandable," he says.


"They think they are accessing a more reliable source of health information than what traditional medicine is providing," Oliver told Shots.

The survey polled 1,351 people online in August and September. The findings were published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Conspiracy beliefs directly affect how people take care of their health, the survey found.


That was true even after the researchers adjusted the results to remove any influence caused by people's socioeconomic status or their level of trust overall.


"The world is a complicated place," Oliver says. "It's difficult to make sense of it. A lot of these conspiracy theories are intuitively compelling."

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