Maria Konnikova summarizes some really interesting research by political scientist, Brendan Nyhan. Nyhan was interested in finding out whether various pro-vaccination campaigns would change parental attitudes toward vaccines. 

Nyhan and a team of pediatricians gave a group of 2,000 parents four different leaflets of information. The leaflets showed parents the benefits of vaccinations and explained that there was no evidence that vaccinations lead to autism, but each leaflet used a slightly different method of persuasion.

“Each household received one of four messages: a leaflet from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stating that there had been no evidence linking the measles, mumps, and rubella (M.M.R.) vaccine and autism; a leaflet from the Vaccine Information Statement on the dangers of the diseases that the M.M.R. vaccine prevents; photographs of children who had suffered from the diseases; and a dramatic story from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about an infant who almost died of measles. A control group did not receive any information at all. The goal was to test whether facts, science, emotions, or stories could make people change their minds.

The result was dramatic: a whole lot of nothing. None of the interventions worked. The first leaflet—focussed on a lack of evidence connecting vaccines and autism—seemed to reduce misperceptions about the link, but it did nothing to affect intentions to vaccinate. It even decreased intent among parents who held the most negative attitudes toward vaccines, a phenomenon known as the backfire effect. The other two interventions fared even worse: the images of sick children increased the belief that vaccines cause autism, while the dramatic narrative somehow managed to increase beliefs about the dangers of vaccines. “It’s depressing,” Nyhan said. “We were definitely depressed,” he repeated, after a pause.

People are stubborn. Their particular worldviews are stronger than science. And we are more influenced by Playboy Bunnies than by smart people who have facts and figures at their disposal.

Who are these misinformed people? Are they mentally impaired? I come across confused parents all the time. I know very smart people who didn’t immunize their children. Their anti-vaccination positions stem from their alternative view of healthcare and medicine. Those parents also use specialized cleaning products for their homes and steer away from store-bought meat. Anti-vaccination is part of a cluster of beliefs about modern medicine, the environment, and child-rearing. One leaflet isn’t going to make them budge.

I talk to well-meaning  parents of kids with autism, who believe that autism can be cured with strange diets or by high-pitched sounds in the ears. One quack is even experimenting with magnets on the brain. I’m very sympathetic to the parents who pursue alternative cures for autism. Their misconceptions aren’t tied to a lifestyle, but stem from sadness and desperation.

I wonder if Nyhan asked the parents in his study about their political ideology and party affiliation. My guess is that the anti-vaxxers are more likely to describe themselves as liberal. Which shows, sadly, that insanity isn’t the property of the right-wing Republicans who think that Obama was born in Africa. Crazy people are everywhere.