NPR: Myths Have a Way of Sticking in the Mind

Myths Have a Way of Sticking in the Mind

For years, I've been puzzled by the persistence of the myth that Saddam Hussein was involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. The myth continues to thrive among a significant portion of the population, despite numerous studies, reports and investigations that have shown it to be false.

Well, a recent study seems to show why: Myths have a way of sticking in the mind.

The research centered on a flier from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that labeled statements about the flu vaccine "true" or "false." (For instance, the statement "Only older people need flu vaccine" was false.) The idea behind the flier was to combat myths about the vaccine. Only it didn't quite work.

The Washington Post reports that Norbert Schwarz, a social psychologist at the University of Michigan, had volunteers read the CDC flyer. Within 30 minutes, older volunteers had "misremembered" 28 percent of the myths as true. Within three days, it was 40 percent. Younger volunteers did better at first, but within three days they had misremembered as much as the older volunteers had after the first 30 minutes.

So what does this mean (besides that our memories are not the greatest)? Well, as the Post notes, "The conventional response to myths and urban legends is to counter bad information with accurate information. But the new psychological studies show that denials and clarifications, for all their intuitive appeal, can paradoxically contribute to the resiliency of popular myths."

Wow. So the more we try to correct a myth, the more we can actually help perpetuate it. Which helps explain Saddam and Sept. 11. And the Loch Ness Monster. And Bigfoot. Etc., etc....

12:43 PM ET | 09- 4-2007 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

So if providing accurate information doesn't work, then how do you correct a myth?

Sent by Doug Brown | 3:45 PM ET | 09-04-2007

I think one of the problems is, some myths trend into avenues that the average person doesn't drive down, like science. And by explaining why something is a myth in scientific terms may satisfy the listener in the short-term, it doesn't hold out if the person doesn't understand why it was a myth in the first place. It has nothing to do with intelligence, more our own comfort zones with the genre of a specific myth.

Sent by E.L. Gulbranson | 6:04 PM ET | 09-04-2007

So the more we try to correct a myth, the more we can actually help perpetuate it.

I don't think that's the lesson here. The lesson is that to correct a myth, you have to do more than just say that it's a myth, or that it's false -- because if you do that, people will often simply forget the bit where you said "It's a myth" or "It's false".

None of this shows that it's ineffective to provide explanation or evidence that the claim in question is false. The problem with the CDC flier was that it didn't do this; instead it just said "These statements are false."

Sent by Gary Bartlett | 8:30 PM ET | 09-04-2007

I heard this very interesting story on the radio yesterday. Several studies were mentioned. Could you provide some citations for the studies, or at least the names of the researchers (in addition to Dr. Schwarz) that were mentioned so I can do some research on these studies. Thank you very much!

Sent by Scott Yaich | 8:42 AM ET | 09-10-2007

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