--- title: Study Says Half Of Americans Believe Medical Conspiracy Theories | TIME description: A new survey from University of Chicago shows half of Americans buy into medical conspiracy theories. Regardless of your thoughts on the theories, researchers say their existence have a very real effect. canonical: https://time.com/video/YCDaUI40/ og:title: Study Says Half Of Americans Believe Medical Conspiracy Theories og:description: A new survey from University of Chicago shows half of Americans buy into medical conspiracy theories. Regardless of your thoughts on the theories, researchers say their existence have a very real effect. og:url: https://time.com/video/YCDaUI40/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/YCDaUI40/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Study Says Half Of Americans Believe Medical Conspiracy Theories twitter:description: A new survey from University of Chicago shows half of Americans buy into medical conspiracy theories. Regardless of your thoughts on the theories, researchers say their existence have a very real effect. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/YCDaUI40/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Study Says Half Of Americans Believe Medical Conspiracy Theories > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Study Says Half Of Americans Believe Medical Conspiracy Theories [Watch (HLS stream): Study Says Half Of Americans Believe Medical Conspiracy Theories](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YCDaUI40.m3u8) (2:16)  _Published 2014-03-19. A new survey from University of Chicago shows half of Americans buy into medical conspiracy theories. Regardless of your thoughts on the theories, researchers say their existence have a very real effect._ --- Jul 27, 2023 4:19 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Why Conspiracy Theories Flourish Amidst Uncertainty](/video/ylORHpEe/) ### Why Conspiracy Theories Flourish Amidst Uncertainty [President Trump Continues to Push Conspiracy Theories](/video/wXkEaMac/) ### President Trump Continues to Push Conspiracy Theories [JFK Assassination: The Appeal Of The Conspiracy Theory](/video/yN05VSnx/) ### JFK Assassination: The Appeal Of The Conspiracy Theory --- ## Transcript A new survey from University of Chicago shows half of Americans buy into medical conspiracy theories. So I had horrible allergies as a kid. Was it because I was vaccinated as an infant? I don't know. Maybe it was the mercury they drilled into my teeth. Good example, Bill. The study authors asked 1, 351 adults if they were aware of six common medical conspiracy theories and whether they believed in them. About half of the respondents believed at least one of the conspiracies presented to them, and more than half of the group already knew about three of the six theories. So in case you're curious, and of course you are, here are the six theories participants were asked about. 1, The FDA prevents people from receiving natural cancer cures. 2, Health officials know cell phones cause cancer. 3, Genetically modified food was purposefully designed to shrink the world's population. 4, The CIA deliberately infected many African- Americans with HIV. 5, Fluoride masks all the chemicals companies dump into our water supply. And finally, doctors know vaccines cause autism and other problems but don't care. The most well known and consequently, most believed of the conspiracies were that the FDA prevents natural cures, cell phones cause cancer, and vaccines cause autism. The most recognized theory though was about the link between vaccines and autism. 67 % knew about it, and 20 % believed it. In a LiveScience article study, author Eric Oliver noted the prevalence of conspiracy theories of all varieties in American culture. He said, an obsession with the unknown could be an evolutionarily driven trait, explaining, if you hear a noise in the bush, it's much more adaptive to believe that there's a predator there than not. But researchers say the theories have very real effects. Those who believed in conspiracy theories were more likely to avoid traditional medical practices, including visiting a dentist, using sunscreen, and getting flu shots. And actually, some of the theories don't seem that far fetched in light of several ethically corrupt moments in the U. S. 's history. The most famous of which could be the mid- century Tuskegee Syphilis Study, when several hundred impoverished men were unknowingly given syphilis and then not given treatment. I'm Megan Judy. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Study Says Half Of Americans Believe Medical Conspiracy Theories","description":"A new survey from University of Chicago shows half of Americans buy into medical conspiracy theories. Regardless of your thoughts on the theories, researchers say their existence have a very real effect.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/YCDaUI40/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-03-19T17:00:12.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YCDaUI40.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/YCDaUI40/","duration":"PT2M16S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/YCDaUI40/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```