“There’s a sucker born every minute”. This phrase was allegedly coined by P. T. Barnum, an American showman of the mid-19th century pictured below. It describes the tendency of the gullible of us to believe all too readily and therefore to be easily deceived.
Gullibility can be described as a failure of social intelligence in which a person is easily tricked or manipulated into a course of action for which there is no plausible evidence. To express it positively, gullible people are naively trusting and thus fall for nonsensical propositions. This renders them easy prey for exploiters. 
On this blog, we see our fair share of this phenomenon, e.g.:
- people who are easily persuaded by anecdotes,
- who disregard evidence
- who fall for pseudoscience,
- who have irrational belief systems,
- who thrive on fallacies,
- who cherry-pick the evidence that fits their belief,
- who are unable to change their views in the face of evidence,
- who interpret even contradictory facts such that they confirm their belief,
- who have no ability to think critically,
- who would do just about anything to avoid cognitive dissonance.
Let me give you just three well-known examples from the realm of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM).
- Advocates of SCAM believe that natural means safe. Yet the therapies used in SCAM are neither natural nor devoid of risks.
- Advocates of SCAM believe that treatments that have a long tradition of usage must be fine. Yet a long history might just signify that the therapy in question is based on obsolete principles.
- Advocates of integrative medicine believe that, by adding unproven therapies to our medicine bag, we might improve healthcare. Yet it is clear that such a move can only make it less effective.
If I look back on 30 years of research into SCAM, I have to say that it very much looks as though a sucker is indeed born every minute.
8 Responses to There’s a sucker born every minute – particularly in the realm of so-called alternative medicine
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I suspect that it’s often more to do with wishful thinking than plain gullibility. CAM tends to be very attractive in its claims; who wouldn’t want ‘gentle’ and totally effective cures with no side effects? People just forget that if something looks too good to be true, it most likely isn’t true.
… and, to me, that’s gullible!
Not Really.
The numbers are in millions. Separated by a few thousand miles of water. Doctors not in the loop?
https://apnews.com/article/europe-coronavirus-pandemic-business-health-government-and-politics-650b09e7babe362e1777606e6b1a369b
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/19/biden-will-make-400-million-n95-masks-available-to-americans-for-free.html
Given the rise in population growth since Barnum’s time I would expect that to be a very low estimate.
World birth rate according to the CIA:
“18.1 births/1,000 population (2020 est.)
note: this rate results in about 259 worldwide births per minute or 4.3 births every second”
https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/world
“There’s a sucker born every minute”. This phrase was indeed coined by P. T. Barnum.
Edzard, you quoted only the first part. It went on as: “There is a crook born every hour, to take care of sixty suckers”.
“This phrase was indeed coined by P. T. Barnum.”
Really?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/There%27s_a_sucker_born_every_minute
Oeps… I can see that there is some room for doubt! But, as the Italians say, ‘if is is not true, it is well invented’.