"Natural Is Better": How the Appeal To Nature Fallacy Derails Public Health

[swag]

https://behavioralscientist.org/natural-is-better-how-the-naturalistic-fallacy-derails-public-health/

By Sofia Deleniv, Dan Ariely, and Kelly Peters

Excerpt:

. . .

Researchers believe that our persistent pro-nature bias is rooted in the belief that natural things are simply better for us. This belief has little grounding in physical reality. Indeed, people strongly prefer to drink “natural” spring water to water that has been distilled and subsequently mineralized even after researchers tell them that the two drinks are certified to be chemically identical. Natural is simply better—what can you do?

Our preference for things deemed to be natural is so illogical and systematic that researchers have given it a name—the appeal to nature fallacy. The power of this cognitive bias is so great that the average person is willing to pay a premium on foods and medicines referred to as natural. This has certainly spawned its fair share of shrewd marketing tactics aimed at unsuspecting consumers.

In our current COVID-19 predicament, the appeal to nature fallacy has an even darker side:  it makes some people believe that they do not need vaccines. Why would they, if they can protect themselves the “natural way”?

At the end of 2020, our behavioral science think tank, BEworks, completed one of the largest North American surveys of the public’s attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination to date, covering over 3,700 nationally representative Canadians. Like other surveys in this sphere, we found that up to a third of respondents are opposed to getting the vaccine. But what really shocked us was how often individuals endorsed the belief that vaccination is unnecessary because the body’s “natural defenses” would do a better job at protecting it from infections

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https://behavioralscientist.org/natural-is-better-how-the-naturalistic-fallacy-derails-public-health/

[Binkie The Clown]

1. Mother Nature's primary job is to try to kill you.

That's the engine of natural selection.
Nature is the enemy. You can't fight nature because you will always lose.
The best you can hope for is an uneasy truce. An even that is temporary at best.
Give nature another 50 or 100 years and it will kill everyone alive today.
Give nature another thousand years, or million years or billion years and it WILL kill every human being in existence.

[MH1]

2. Sigh, if only we could convert this alleged bias to something useful.

Like (for one example) knowing that at least 90% (probably 99.9%) of the time, planting non-native plants (not natural) is a BAD IDEA at least for the wider community. Want to be 'natural'? Find out about, and plant, useful NATIVE plants (or at least non-invasives that were introduced so long ago that it doesn't really matter any more because the ecosystem has adapted).

'Natural' in this sense WOULD be better. Having kids learn about natural wonders instead of the latest video game, would be great.

Yeah, 'pro-nature' bias my ass. People may fall for a 'natural' label on a heavily marketed product, but that doesn't mean they actually give a shit about nature. (Kind of like "pro-life" almost always, isn't.)

[dalton99a]

3. Arsenic is 100% natural.

And lead, and hemlock, and cholesterol, and drinking too much water