One of the most common impediments to learning is our seemingly innate tendency to overemphasize the usefulness of common sense. Although it may be quite useful with the mundane decisions of daily life, more complicated issues often contradict what seems intuitively likely. Thus, an important critical thinking exercise is convincing students that common sense can fail you.

In my experience, the three most instructive themes in this regard are: 1. Demonstrating the difference between correlation and causation; 2. Emphasizing the difference in value between anecdotal evidence and. replicated, peer-reviewed research; and 3. The importance of control groups and placebos.

Here is a recap of the stories that appeared last week at Science-Based Medicine, a multi-author skeptical blog that separates the science from the woo-woo in medicine.  

Blame and Magical Thinking: The consequences of the autism “biomed” movement (David Gorski) http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/blame-and-magical-thinking-the-consequences-of-the-autism-biomed-movement/ The vaccine/autism myth refuses to die; it continues to fuel costly, useless, and potentially harmful treatments. The new propaganda film “Canary Kids” characterizes all kinds of health problems as “almost autism” and attributes them to vaccines. Parents are being persuaded to blame themselves for their children’s autism and to feel guilty for having allowed them to be vaccinated.  

On a recent driving trip I realized at one point that I was completely relying on my GPS device to tell me, turn by turn, where to go. If my GPS lost its signal I would have no idea where I was or how to proceed. In the past I would navigate with maps and I would have a pretty good idea of the roads between me and my destination. Now I mindlessly do whatever my cell phone tells me to do.

Is something similar happening in modern medicine? There is no question that our modern technology has given us powerful diagnostic tools, but has this atrophied our most important tool of all, our brains?