One Thing that Hasn’t Changed in 250 Years: Americans’ Willingness to Get Suckered
- Americans have chased fraudulent 'treatments' for 250 years, with a belief that anything is possible building the world's largest economy while simultaneously making citizens vulnerable to schemes now embedded in everyday speech.
- Life expectancy doubled from 47 years in 1900 to 79 today, yet Dr. Benjamin Rush, a Philadelphia physician who signed the Declaration of Independence, faced helplessness during the 1793 yellow fever epidemic—revealing the desperation driving medical fads.
- Clark Stanley, the Rattlesnake King, sold 'snake oil liniment' promising to cure 'partial paralysis of the arms and lower limbs,' though the U.S. Bureau of Chemistry found it was mainly mineral oil in 1916; Bailey Radium Laboratories marketed Radithor in 1925 as a 'cure for the living dead' that poisoned people with radiation.
- Social media and the internet have removed historical safeguards, with Dr. Lydia Kang warning the American public faces 'far greater danger' as false beliefs now provide psychological benefits—community, blame, and hope—that sustain them despite conclusive evidence.
- Neuroscience professor Tali Sharot at University College London explains we form beliefs to gain rewards and avoid harm rather than achieve truth, revealing evolutionary roots for our persistent attraction to outlandish and disproven claims despite common sense.
44 Articles
44 Articles
Sentinel Colorado
Washington TimesOne thing that hasn't changed in 250 years: Americans' willingness to get suckered
An exploration of how America's culture of optimism and individualism makes its citizens particularly vulnerable to fraudulent medical claims and exploitative marketing schemes throughout history.
One thing that hasn’t changed in 250 years: Americans’ willingness to get suckered - Regional Media News
NEW YORK (AP) - America: land of possibility. And also: land of suckers. Our enduring belief that anything is possible - whether based in reality or not - has helped the nation become the world's largest economy. It has also led us to fall head [...]
America’s long history of falling for hucksters and their outlandish promises
A man sells a tonic claiming to be good for any of several ailments while a crowd listens on 50th Street near Broadway in New York, on Dec. 1, 1944. (AP Photo/TR)(AP Photo/TR) NEW YORK (AP) — America: land of possibility. And also: land of suckers. Our enduring belief that anything is possible — whether […]
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