Amateurs, like myself, with kids, hate the vaccine dilemma. It exemplifies the struggle for reliable information in our society today. On the one hand you have a lot of smart, honorable scientists who have the real data and facts but don’t know the appropriate techniques for distributing (or rather, market) that information to parents. On the the other hand you have some well intentioned parents mixed in with some all too willing media outlets who are doing a very good job at marketing their information (or story). And as the wild card you have some corporate vaccine manufacturers and the clueless government types mixed in there.
As this story and quote from this Mind Hacks blog entry points out, the narrative is much more effective in winning the hearts and minds of the general public:
Rachel Casiday, a medical anthropologist at the Centre for Integrated Health Care Research at Durham University, UK, who studied British parents’ attitudes toward MMR, says scientists should not underestimate the importance of narrative. People relate much more to a dramatic story—“he got his vaccination, he stopped interacting, and he hasn’t been the same since”—than they do to facts, risk analyses, and statistical studies.
“If you discount these stories, people think you have an ulterior motive or you’re not taking them seriously,” she explains. Casiday suggests providing an alternative, science-based explanation or relating emotionally compelling tales about counter-risk—such as helplessly watching a young child die of a vaccine-preventable disease—in the same narrative format.
I’ve been reading Susan Blackmore’s Meme Machine and really into the idea of the second replicator. To me, this is a perfect example of how it works. Some ways of transmitting ideas from human to human are more likely to stick then others. Stories, especially human interest stories that evoke emotion, are the most powerful of all. Scientists become frustrated when people don’t listen to what they say, even when they have all the facts on their side. It’s because their ideas aren’t sticking, it’s that they’re not winning over the mind. This isn’t just a case of poor education or lack of focus on the part of the parents (although there is some of that), this is the way we’re wired, so it’s probably about time science started using the path of least resistance instead of swimming up stream.
I’ll be the first to admit that when I hear anecdotal evidence of a child who has had some shots and suddenly becomes autistic, it scares the crap out of me. And I know many parents in my town who are refusing to have the kids vaccinated because of similar stories.