alt.hn

4/23/2026 at 2:18:38 PM

'Staggering' number of people believe unproven claims about vaccines, raw milk

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01285-2

by voxadam

4/23/2026 at 2:56:33 PM

The very first of the "false or unproven" claims they list is "animal protein is healthier than plant-based protein".

And at this level of imprecision, that claim is true!

Animal protein has a good balance of amino acids. Many plant proteins do not. Sure, you can mix various plant proteins to get a good balance. But if you don't know what you're doing - getting all your protein from beans, for instance - you can end up with a deficiency.

Maybe rather than say the problem is "an overabundance of conflicting information", they might want to improve the quality of the information that they push.

by radford-neal

4/23/2026 at 3:35:53 PM

There’s a huge difference between something that is proven false and something that is unproven. Why are these bucketed together?

I don’t know anyone who believes nothing that hasn’t been statistically proven. You can’t operate in real life that way.

by noworriesnate

4/23/2026 at 3:07:36 PM

Perhaps it’s naive but I really think that teaching critical thinking patterns to young teens can help. Just telling “don’t believe everything you read” can cut both ways.

by user____name

4/23/2026 at 2:29:16 PM

It is staggering how many people cannot engage critical thought.

by robthebrew

4/23/2026 at 2:38:36 PM

Because they've fallen down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole to the point of where they only trust things if there's a convoluted explanation behind it.

by rkozik1989