The Myth About Debunking Myths
Marian Grant DNP, RN, FAAN
We love debunking myths. This is a problem.
Repeating myths keeps people stuck in misinformation. Then they decline services that are proven to help.
What myths, you might ask? Well, I’m not going to repeat them as evidence shows doing so only reinforces them. One 2018 study found that “beliefs that are mentioned become mnemonically accessible and exhibit an increase in believability”. Which is academic speak for the fact that the more people hear something, even if it’s not true, the more familiar the idea becomes to them and, therefore, the more believable.
Debunking myths doesn’t work.
Trying to debunk myths is actually counterproductive. A study done about “death panels” found that efforts to persuade people that death panels made them *more* convinced that death panels do exist. Most recently, misinformation about vaccinations has become a public health crisis prompting UNICEF to issue a guide on handling it. That guide notes that “misinformation is sticky” in that it sticks in peoples’ minds and is hard to dislodge.
Why am I bringing this up? We clinicians have a tendency to think that all we need to do to debunk myths is just tell people that they are myths, to ‘give them good information’. There is no evidence that this works! Talking about common myths just reinforces misperceptions—these days when people read they are scanning quickly and what seems familiar is reinforced.
Instead, tell a story that plants a seed of doubt…
What to do instead? Reframe your message to plant a seed of doubt in the myth you want to debunk. For instance, the story below about palliative care we used in focus groups intrigued participants: the patient Laura develops a serious illness—but with palliative care, she goes on living.
Laura, 72, enjoyed her retirement until she noticed she was having trouble keeping up with her friends on their walks. She went to her primary care doctor, and then a heart specialist, who found out that she had had a silent heart attack. A few weeks later, Laura had another heart attack and ended up in the hospital with heart failure. A nurse, Nicole, came to see Laura. Nicole explained that she was a nurse on the palliative care team, which meant focusing on helping people live well, even with a serious illness. Nicole asked Laura what was most important to her about her care, and then arranged support that Laura didn’t know existed. That included giving her medication for nausea, helping her with how to talk about her illness with her grandchildren, and a social worker to provide support to Laura’s husband. A few weeks after starting palliative care, Laura is starting to feel normal again and back to enjoying many of the activities she used to do.
After hearing this story, the focus group participants looked at each other and said “that sounds like an ideal situation.” We didn’t have to convince them about what *not* to believe.
Messaging Principle #1 Talk up the benefits.
Instead of repeating myths, tell stories about the benefits—this holds whether you are messaging advance care planning, palliative care, or hospice. Frame the information you want to get across in a way that contradicts the inaccurate perception without repeating it.