CSH Talk by Helena Miton: “Explaning the spread and persistence of maladaptive medical beliefs”


Oct 24, 2019 | 15:0016:00

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The lecture by Helena Miton, CEU, SFI will take place at the Complexity Science Hub Vienna.

Location: Salon

If you are interested in participating, please email to office@csh.ac.at

 

Abstract:

 

A cultural evolution framework can be used to understand the spread of medical beliefs and practices and open new avenues of research on those topics. Integrating knowledge from cognitive science to cultural evolutionary models can be used to understand the spread and evolution of health-related practices. I illustrate this point through two examples: bloodletting and resistance to pro-vaccination beliefs. Those two cases illustrate what can go wrong with medical beliefs, and public health. Bloodletting is an inefficient, even dangerous, practice, which nevertheless enjoyed an impressive cultural success. We investigated bloodletting’s success using a combination of anthropological, experimental and modeling data. Vaccination is an efficient practice that faces hostile reactions, as a result of which why vaccination rates are not as high as they should be. These reactions are best understood as the combination of several cognitive mechanisms rendering pro-vaccination beliefs counter-intuitive.

Details

Date
Oct 24, 2019
Time
15:00—16:00

Organizer

Complexity Science Hub Vienna
Phone
+43 1 59991 600
Email
office@csh.ac.at
Website
View Organizer Website

Venue

CSH Vienna
Josefstaedter Straße 39
Wien,1080
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Phone
+43 1 59991 600
Website
View Venue Website