don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

In my seminar at the National Wellness Conference (NWC) this week, I want to persuade attendees to make critical thinking skills part of the wellness concept. This is important for such professionals, both personally and in the work they do promoting healthy lifestyles. While I don't think wellness promoters should tell people what is bullbleep and what isn't, I do think they can offer insights on how others can best make such judgments themselves. Specifically, I want wellness promoters to do four things in promoting critical thinking (CT): 

1. Provide up-to-date info on health-related hoaxes, scams and the like. 
   
   
2. Translate into consumer-friendly language basic tools of CT. 
   
   
3. Promote resources that facilitate CT (websites, books, etc.)
   
   
4. Do the research and study that is required in order to offer wellness-based interpretations of mass media events (celebrity behaviors, movies, etc.)

If wellness promoters focused on telling people what is and what is not bullbleep, they would have little impact, since people are on their own, most of the time, without an expert to assess every situation. On the other hand, providing tools and principles for effective decision-making empowers consumers to assess information and discern bogus treatments, products, urban legends and the like from the real deal--or, at least, to make better decisions, more often than not, based on solid evidence. 
 
All of which leads me to a big confession--I recently committed the embarrassing faux pas of promulgating an urban legend! The story I passed along sounded plausible--and it was a fascinating tale, so I shared it with readers of my weekly ARDELL WELLNESS REPORT. A month or so later, I discovered it was an urban legend! How embarrassing--how could I commit such a gaff? Easy. I did it by not following the guidelines I plan to promote at my CT workshop during the NWC. From now on, I will! Better late than never.
 
The legend I passed along concerned a young female photojournalist's lone motorcycle ride through Chernobyl (Available at http://www.kiddofspeed.com/). Turns out the alleged adventurer did not ride a motorcycle alone in the zone, but was part of a regular tour--on a bus! Much else about the story was misleading or false, according to an article in the July 6 Los Angeles Times entitled, "Account of Chernobyl Trip Takes Web Surfers for a Ride."
 
So, what is it about urban legends that fool so many, leading even those who esteem CT to sometimes under-employ the skepticism and caution they usually embrace? (Note: Tens of millions of viewers visited the site featuring this legend at Angelfire.com.)

An urban legend is a good tale, served with or inspired by a dollop of truth. It is often exciting, amazing, titillating, worrisome and so on--pick your adjectives--most apply to the best of the legends. Thanks to the wonder of the WWW, such legends give new meaning to the phrase "spreading like wildfires." Legends lack evidence to support the story, however. One legend I have seen regularly for years concerns a businessman who meets an attractive woman at a bar, takes her back to his hotel room and wakes up the next morning in a bathtub, packed in ice and missing a kidney. A note advises, "call 911 or you'll die." Or, how many times have you seen the urban legend entitled, "Good Luck, Mr Gorsky?" I won't explain it but, if it's unfamiliar to you (unlikely), it's worth looking up--go to Snopes.com. 

Why do so many urban legends come about? Why do we spread them so? What can we learn from all this in order to become more effective thinkers? These topics will be addressed in the next essay.

Meanwhile, be well and look on the bright side.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the MENTAL DOMAIN under the skill area of effective decisions. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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