Groupthink and Health: Avoiding the Bandwagon in Medicine and Policy

A friend who had moved to California once told me, “You’ll love it out here. You do what the crowd does, or they’ll leave you behind.”

I was horrified.

Did that mean you stop thinking for yourself and just jump on whatever bandwagon the “crowd” was on? Apparently, it did and that phenomena doesn’t just exist in California—it exists in many professions, political parties, and in the media.

The Dangers of Groupthink

Some examples of groupthink are found in a riveting read from the newly nominated Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Marty Makary, in Blind Spots, When Medicine Gets It Wrong and What It Means for Our Health. From overuse of antibiotics (assuming that there is no harm in prescribing them), to thinking that opioids aren’t addictive, believing that all fats are bad for you, and avoiding peanut products in the young. He documents the harm that is done when every doctor must believe in the groupthink prescriptions. Doctors who challenged the prevailing wisdom were scorned or worse.

Lessons from the Past

Groupthink led us to bad decisions 40 years ago that we are revisiting today. In the 1980s, consumer activists railed against animal fats containing saturated fats (like lard) used for frying in fast-food restaurants. In response, fast-food companies switched to partially hydrogenated oils, i.e., trans fatty acids and consumers switched from butter to supposedly healthier margarines.

Read the full piece on my Substack here.