Experts explain why medical conspiracy theories are born and their appeal to certain communities

If you’ve ever turned to Google or asked a family member to answer a medical question, you’re not alone.

While many people will make an appointment with their doctor to get reliable health information, others may turn to less traditional sources.

In some cases, this can lead to harmless misinformation — such as sticking onions in your socks to cure a common cold — but it can also lead to the spread of potentially harmful medical conspiracy theories.

Medical conspiracy theories are nothing new, and they can range from the extreme to the surprisingly mainstream.

Some common example are the belief that the flu shot can give you the flu or that fluoride in drinking water is bad for your health. Other theories, such as childhood immunisations causing autism, are much more damaging.

However, all of these theories do share one important thing — they have all been conclusively debunked.

The reasons people believe medical conspiracy theories can be boiled down to three main drivers, according to QUT Digital Media Research Centre senior research analyst Kate FitzGerald.

“I think there is still a really similar underlying psychological reason that people are drawn to conspiracy theories in general,” FitzGerald said.

“The first one is a desire for certainty. I think this is probably why we saw so many medical conspiracy theories come up early in the COVID-19 pandemic, because it was one of those few times where you couldn’t really turn to a doctor or an institutional expert and get their opinion.

“The knowledge around what was happening and how to protect yourself from the virus was evolving so quickly. I think it really left people feeling quite uncertain and trying to seek their own explanations.”

COVID-19 conspiracy theories were varied — from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates developing vaccines containing injectable microchips, to mRNA vaccines altering human DNA, to claims of the virus being created for biological warfare. None has ever been proven.

“If you don’t understand something or you don’t know why something is happening in the world, then these alternative explanations that conspiracy theories can pose can be really, really appealing because it satisfies that sort of need for safety that people have,” FitzGerald said.

“That sort of leads into the second appeal of conspiracy theories that most people have, which is, psychologically, humans hate to feel unsafe or out of control of a situation.”

Other medical conspiracy theories that emerged around the same time include the supposed health and environmental impacts of 5G mobile technology.