The turkey is the symbol of Thanksgiving. Whenever I see a Wild Turkey, I think of Thanksgiving and talk about how Benjamin Franklin wanted it to be our national bird instead of the Bald Eagle. I learned today that this is false; Ben Franklin did not wish to or suggest the Wild Turkey as our national symbol. After the Bald Eagle was chosen to appear on our national seal, Ben Franklin did express concerns about the Bald Eagle being a “Bird of bad moral character.”
When we hold a firm belief and new knowledge challenges it, we can get defensive and, in fact, “double-down” ( I despise that term…), increasing our belief. Leon Festinger discovered the phenomena of cognitive dissonance in 1957.
When one learns new information that challenges a deeply held belief, for example, or acts in a way that seems to undercut a favorable self-image, that person may feel motivated to somehow resolve the negative feeling that results—to restore cognitive consonance. Though a person may not always resolve cognitive dissonance, the response to it may range from ignoring the source of it to changing one’s beliefs or behavior to eliminate the conflict. If it hurts too much to realize I am wrong, I will just ignore the truth, and all will be fine…
Here is an example, recently, I learned that the sports medicine/first-aid mnemonic R.I.C.E. (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) is not recommended for an injury since inflammation is the body’s response to healing an injury. Using ice and/or anti-inflammatory medicines interferes with the healing process. Dr. Gabe Mirkin, who invented the R.I.C.E method, redacted that approach in 2015. Healing requires inflammation!
I encourage you to research this; however, ice slows and sometimes stops healing. For decades I have used the R.I.C.E. method, and the over the past two years have been icing my shoulder weekly and after workouts. Yes, it sucks that I was wrong in doing this, but I am now excited to learn a new (and proven) approach to treating injuries (M.E.A.T.) Movement, Exercise, Analgesics, Treatment.
I have also asked doctors, “Why do we intentionally interfere with the body’s inflammation response to injuries?” The doctors were not receptive to this question and responded with a “just do it since I know best.” Many medical doctors do not like it when a physicist is their patient. In physics, we are obsessed with questions focused on “why?”
The responses I got when talking to people about not icing their acute injuries were interesting. A large proportion of responses were defensive and aggressive — with no scientific basis (references or peer-reviewed research) to back up their support of the older R.I.C.E. method. I get it. I was taught about using ice on injuries for years, including in classes on first aid. Now I am glad that I learned that using ice is not helpful. Perhaps a good topic to bring up around the table at Thanksgiving?
A great book on learning is “Black Box Thinking: Why Most People Never Learn from Their Mistakes – But Some Do” by Matthew Syed. I enjoyed how the author contrasted the learning in the aircraft industry (hence the black box) and the medical professions. Guess which industry learns better from its mistakes?
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!