How to protect yourself against the dark arts of the snakeoil salesman

This post is (more or less) what I gave a journalist on a local newspaper. 

Apart from omitting the first 2 paragraphs (which lost the context), and replacing my title with theirs (which lost the point), and omitting the last red flag (which censored an unpleasantness), and printing my pic instead of Clark Stanley's (which embarrassed me), and getting my job title wrong in the credits (which should have embarrassed them), they did a fine job with what was left.

So here is what I  wanted them to print.

Not many people know that there was a real man who sold fake snake oil as a cure for all rheumatic conditions. Clark Stanley was, according to Wikipedia, a failed cowboy at the turn of the 20th century who made his product and profession synonymous with quack medicine.

From Wikimedia Commons.

Stanley may have got the idea of a snake oil liniment from Native Americans or from Chinese workers employed to build railways to the Wild West. Although the product was advertised as being rattlesnake oil, an analysis in 1917 by a US Government agency found that it consisted mostly of mineral oil with a small amount of what was presumed to be beef fat. It also had additives to give it a strong smell (camphor) and make the skin red and painful (red pepper). These additives were presumably intended to give the liniment the appearance of effectiveness.

Snake oil salesmen, quacksalvers, mountebanks, and charlatans will always be around to gull the gullible. As we are all gullible at one time or another, we need to know how to defend ourselves from the dark arts of the snake oil salesman, particularly when we are vulnerable.

People are vulnerable if they think they are too old or too young, too fat or too thin, too white or too black, have too much hair or too little hair, have biceps or boobs that are too small, or if they are unlucky or incompetent in love.  People are particularly vulnerable when they have a disease that may be fatal or a chronic condition that ruins the quality of their lives. And, they are even more vulnerable if their doctor doesn’t listen or communicate properly.

So we all need to be aware of the tricks that snake oil salesmen employ to gain our confidence. Here is a quick checklist of red flags that signal you are being taken for a ride:

Your emotional buttons are being manipulated —  all advertising does this, but claims about healthcare products should be based on scientific studies, not on empty assertions.

Unbelievable claims are made about how your problems can be solved — we have so many treatments that have worked so well for so many years that not only are we unaware of how miraculous they once seemed, but we also expect every ailment to have a quick and easy cure. However, there are many incurable conditions that can only be alleviated. Which is why the goal of a good and honest doctor is “to cure sometimes, to relieve often, and to care always”.

Testimonials are given as the best evidence —  this is a smoke screen to cover inconvenient or absent scientific evidence; and worse, it manipulates people’s desire for social approval, nudging you to copy the celebrities, or healthy people that endorse the product.

Bait and switch techniques lure you in for a free consultation or free treatment, but then con you into wanting and paying for many different treatments, or a course of therapies over a long time to “maintain wellness”

Sciencey language is designed to make it difficult for you be sceptical about claims based on pseudoscience

Theatrical treatments are designed to increase the placebo effect by convincing you that the treatment is effective

Blaming the victim is used to subtly get you to think it is your fault that you fell ill, are suffering, or do not get better. Snake oil sold with this technique comes with elaborate instructions on how to use it.

====================

Update 21 November 2011:

Maki has a great post with "A list of red flags to help you identify a pseudoscience or quack modality"

http://sci-ence.org/the-telltale-quack/