Title: The Role of Anecdotes in Science-Based Medicine | Science-Based Medicine
Headings: The Role of Anecdotes in Science-Based Medicine
The Role of Anecdotes in Science-Based Medicine
Posted by        Steven Novella
Steven Novella • 13 years ago
rjstan@together.net • 13 years ago
Steven Novella • 13 years ago
Steven Novella • 13 years ago
rjstan@together.net • 13 years ago

Content: Humans are social storytelling animals – we instinctively learn by the experience of others. My friend ate that plant with the bright red berries and then became very ill – lesson: don’t eat from that plant. This is a type of heuristic, a mental shortcut that humans evolved in order to make quick and mostly accurate judgments about their environment. From an evolutionary point of view it is probably statistically advantageous just to avoid the plant with the red berries rather than conduct blinded experiments to see if it really was the plant that made your friend sick. Further, the most compelling stories are our own. When we believe we have experienced something directly, it is difficult to impossible to convince us otherwise. It’s just the way humans are hardwired. Understanding the world through stories was a good strategy in the environment of our evolutionary history but is far too flawed to deal with the complex world we live in today. In fact, the discipline of science developed as a tool to go beyond the efficient but flawed techniques we evolved.