What we accept as a belief creates what is called 'confirmation bias' in our system. An opinion that is based on nothing more than the uninformed talk from others, can actually change our brain so that it begins to sort for confirming information, almost immediately.
It can be based on research and science, and substantiated opinions, or it can be stuff we gleened from chatrooms, the hairdressers or the casual flip through a magazine. Really? Yes.We are incredibly easy to influence, especially if it is charged with an emotion-especially fear.
Case in point, the emails that circulate endlessly. They are forwarded endlessly! No, microsoft is NOT giving out money if you forward the email. Neither is Nestle's, Hershey's, or any other company. Nope. Not IBM. Doesn't matter if it said "this came from my lawyer, my accountant, my best friend, my brother that is a specialist". Check it out yourself. Go to www.truthorfiction.com or www.snopes.com and check yourself. But no. It's easier to pass it on 'in case' it's true. Why are we so reluctant to do our own questioning?
I'm in the hairdressers. One woman says she has earthquake emergency kits in all cars with first aid stuff, power bars and bottles of water. Someone else inhales sharply and says "Oh no! Not bottles of water. Those will give you breast cancer! Didn't you hear?!" The whole salon comes to a silent stop. No breathing. Some agree, yes, they heard it. This is a thought meme. Whether or not it is true, it has now been introduced, much like a virus would if she had had a cold and sneezed! Each person's brain has grasped the emotional charge, and even if they think "oh come on-if there is an emergency and that is your only water, you'll drink it"...the unspoken thought was "even if it could give you breast cancer."
It's out there now, hanging in the room. Some had not heard that, some had. Those that had, confirmed it was true to those that had not heard it. It is now circulating in all their little hippocampi, getting potentiated around and around. Hardwiring into them.
Confirmation bias is now active. Their brain is going to start filtering FOR information that will confirm this and it will automatically filter OUT anything that does not.
See, we try to confirm, not disconfirm. We do it automatically. Consciously, as well as subconsciously. Peter Wason coined the term 'confirmation bias' and interestingly enough we use a different part of our brain when do it. When people around you hold a belief, you form a belief based on their belief, and your brain starts to accept confirming data, not disconfirming data. Automatically.
Haven't you heard people say the old 'three times' bit? They heard it three times, so it means it's real. You know where that superstition...er...tradition came from? The old testament. Testimony is only accepted as true if it has been witnessed three times. Once is not enough. Twice is not enough. Three times.
So, you hear about the water bottles at the hairdressers. You don't really think it's true. You overhear two women in the grocery store, coincidentally, while you are in line the next day saying the same thing. You must have missed the study and make a note to look it up. Then a few days later someone sees you with a plastic water bottle while you are out and says "don't leave that in your car. You heard about the new study right?" That's it! You might pish posh it, but the very next time you go to take a drink from the water bottle in your car...you hestitate.
It's not true, right? I mean, come on. It hasn't even been hot lately. How long does it have to be in the car? Maybe it doesn't mean anything? But you know, it isn't worth taking a chance is it? You don't drink the water. You throw it away in fact. I mean, it's not so hard to get a glass bottle for the car is it?
That hesitation means that you have formed a new health belief that is based on fear marketing, whether or not it is true, and that fast, you got walked into it. Each time you go to take a drink from a plastic bottle your brain says "danger". Do you think you are potentiating an attractor field? You could be. Is it helpful?
Here's the TRUTH girls and boys:
eated Bottles of Water Are Dangerous and Caused Sheryl Crow's Cancer-Fiction!
According to www.truthorfiction.com
Summary of the eRumor:
There are a several versions of this eRumor.
The first to appear on the Internet was a message that says a Dr. Edward Fujimoto from the Castle Hospital (no location mentioned) appeared on television and said plastic containers should not be used for heating foods in a microwave oven. He said this is especially true if the foods contain fat. The message claims that the combination of fats and plastics will release dioxins into the food and into the cells of the body with a risk of cancer. The doctor recommended using glass, Corning Ware, or ceramic containers instead in order to avoid the dioxin. Prepared foods such as TV dinners should be taken out of plastic containers before heating.
The second version tells the story of a seventh-grade student who decided to do some experiments with microwave radiation on food wrapped in plastic. She is said to have enlisted the help of the National Center for "Toxicological" Research in Arkansas. The student allegedly found that not only are there carcinogens migrating from the plastic into food during microwaving, but other substances as well.
This eRumor also lists an article about Dr. Edward Fujimoto saying that he appeared on a TV station in Huntsville, Alabama.
Another version claims all this was in newsletters from Johns Hopkins University and Walter Reed Army Medical center.
Yet another version says that singer Sheryl Crow, who is suffering from breast cancer, got her cancer from drinking from plastic water bottles left in the sun and that got too hot and, as a result, were contaminated with dioxins.
The Truth:
TruthOrFiction.com has not been able to find any research that supports the fear that food can become contaminated with dioxins either from plastic wrap or plastic in microwave ovens.
Now folks, if heating in a microwave won't release those dangerous dioxins, then will getting warm in the car do it???
I got caught up the official one that said this though:
Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins University- Fiction!
Summary of the eRumor:
A lengthy email about cancer and nutrition said to have been published by the famous Johns Hopkins University
The Truth:
The suggestions in the email do not appear to have come from any reputable medical source and Johns Hopkins University says it did not come from them.
In a published statement, the university said, "Johns Hopkins did not publish the email, entitled "Cancer Update from Johns Hopkins," nor do we endorse its contents. For more information about cancer, please read the information on our web site or visit the National Cancer Institute's web site at www.cancer.gov.
You know why this one got me? My husband was IN the hospital at the time, and every bit of his food was microwaved on plastic sealed containers and plates. I was vulnerable to immediately accepting this as TRUTH!
Now a year later, I can delete this from my internal files as not true, if I can. But it is a persistent one. I have even passed it on with the best of intentions, just like that woman in the hair salon. By the way-that hair salon water bottle story-truth. I was there. I heard it and watched it go around the room like lightning folks!
Watch your brain-someone has to!