JANUARY /FEBRUARY 2021 | MIND.SCIENTIFICAMERICAN.

COM

PLUS

Stress
NEUROLOGICAL
DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN
CONSERVATIVES

Survival AND LIBERALS

PSYCHIATRIC

Guide
Tactics that everyone can
MEDS AT A
DEAD END?

A HISTORY
OF SCIENCE
easily use to control their response DENIALISM
to intense life circumstances WITH COVERAGE FROM
FROM
THE
EDITOR

Your Opinion Matters!

Help shape the future
of this digital magazine.
Let us know what you
think of the stories within
these pages by emailing us:
LIZ TORMES

editors@sciam.com.

Calm Yourself
If you’ve ever watched late-night TV, you’ve likely seen unfortunate advertisements for diet pills that claim to
rid you of belly fat that arose from high levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the body. The pills are bunk,
but the relation between cortisol levels in the body and chronic stress are real. Stress response is a vital
evolutionary adaptation that allows us to run from predators or catch a train. Even if we haven’t been doing
either in 2020, stress levels are still running high—blame the TV again. And the pandemic.
Chronic high stress levels mean constant inflammation and lead to illness and burnout. It turns out that
we have the power to decrease the physiological stress response by manipulating two bodily systems on the
frontlines of stress detection: the breath and our eyes. In this edition’s cover story, neuroscientist Andrew
Huberman gives simple but powerful tips for how to get a handle on your body’s stress response immediately
(see “Secrets to Surviving Stressful Times”). I can’t guarantee that the rest of the articles in this issue won’t
get your heart pounding in anger or fear, but at least you will have the tools to relax.

BONNIE TARPEY GETTY IMAGES

On the Cover
Tactics that everyone can
Andrea Gawrylewski easily use to control their
Senior Editor, Collections response to intense life
editors@sciam.com circumstances

2
WHAT’S January–
February
2021
INSIDE 英文杂志首发QQ群: 1074370165
Volume 32 • No. 1

NEWS OPINION
4. Media Multitasking 31. What If a Pill Can
Disrupts Memory, Change Your Politics
Even in Young Adults or Religious Beliefs?
Simultaneous TV, A new mental health
texting and Instagram treatment using the
lead to memory-sapping psychedelic compound

NOLWEN CIFUENTES GETT Y IMAGES

attention lapses psilocybin raises
5. We Learn Faster When questions about
We Aren’t Told What medicine and values
Choices to Make 33. The Denialist
GETTY IMAGES

The way we decide may Playbook

even give insight into On vaccines, evolution,
delusional thinking and more, rejection
8. AI Assesses of science has followed
FEATURES a familiar pattern
Alzheimer’s Risk by 14. Secrets to Surviving Stressful Times
Analyzing Word Usage Stanford neurobiologist Andrew Huberman ILLUSIONS
New models used writing discusses the two things we can always control, 37. Out of the Woods
samples to predict the
MIGUEL NAVARRO GETT Y IMAGES

even during a high-stress election and scary Using natural timbers

onset of the disease with COVID pandemic to make the
70 percent accuracy 17. Conservative and Liberal Brains impossible tangible
10. Our Brain Is Better Might Have Some Real Differences
at Remembering Where Scanners try to watch the red-blue divide play out
to Find Brownies Than underneath the skull
Cherry Tomatoes 21. Has the Drug-Based Approach
Humans’ spatial recall to Mental Illness Failed?
makes mental notes Journalist Robert Whitaker is more concerned
about the location than ever that psychiatric medications do more
of high-calorie foods harm than good
11. Why Hatred and 28. The Disturbing History of Research
“Othering” of Political into Transgender Identity
RUTA LIPSKIJA GETT Y IMAGES

Foes Has Spiked to Research into the determinants of gender identity

Extreme Levels may do more harm than good
The new political
polarization casts rivals
as alien, unlikable and
morally contemptible

3
NEWS
Media Multitasking
Disrupts Memory,
Even in Young Adults
Simultaneous TV, texting and
Instagram lead to memory-sapping
attention lapses

The bulky, modern human brain

evolved hundreds of thousands of
years ago and, for the most part, has
remained largely unchanged. That is,
it is innately tuned to analog informa-
tion—to focus on the hunt at hand
or perhaps the forage for wild plants.
Yet we now pummel our ancient
thinking organ with a daily deluge of ability to later recall specific situa- additional objects and asked whether correlated with a tendency toward
digital information that many scien- tions or experiences. they were already classified or new. attentional lapses and decreased pupil
tists believe may have enduring and The authors of the new paper used By analyzing these individuals’ brain diameter, a known marker of reduced
worrisome effects. electroencephalography—a technique and eye responses as they were attention. And attention gaps just prior
A new study published in October that measures brain activity—and tasked with remembering, the re- to remembering were linked with
in Nature supports the concern. eye tracking to assess attention in 80 searchers could identify the number forgetting the earlier images and
The research suggests that “media young adults between the ages of 18 of lapses in their attention. These reduced brain-signal patterns known
multitasking”—or engaging with and 26. The study participants were findings were then compared to the to be associated with episodic memo-
multiple forms of digital or screen- first presented with images of objects results of a questionnaire the partici- ry—the recall of particular events.
based media simultaneously, on a computer screen and asked to pants were asked to fill out that Previous work had shown a

GETTY IMAGES
whether they are television, texting classify the pleasantness or size of quantified everyday attention, mind connection between media multitask-
or Instagram—may impair attention each one. After a 10-minute break, wandering and media multitasking. ing and poorer episodic memory. The
in young adults, worsening their the subjects were then shown Higher reported media multitasking new findings offer clues as to why

4
 NEWS

this might be the case. “We found tasking leads to impaired attention Stefano Palminteri of the French
evidence that one’s ability to sustain or if people with worse attention and We Learn Faster National Institute for Health and
attention helps to explain the relation- memory are just more prone to Medical Research (INSERM), who
ship between heavier media multi- digital distractions. They also do not When We Aren’t conducted a study published in
tasking and worse memory,” says the necessarily implicate any specific Told What Choices Nature Human Behaviour in August
paper’s lead author Kevin Madore, media source as detrimental to the to Make that examines this tendency. “In a
a postdoctoral fellow in the depart- brain. As work by Bavelier found, The way we decide may even give sense we have been perfecting our
ment of psychology at Stanford action video games in particular insight into delusional thinking understanding of this bias,” he says.
University. “Individuals who are harbor plenty of potential for improv- Using disarmingly simple tasks,
heavier media multitaskers may also ing brain function. Palminteri’s team found choice had a
show worse memory because they But Madore and his colleagues, In a perfect world, we would learn clear influence on decision-making.
have lower sustained attention ability.” including senior author of the paper from success and failure alike. Both Participants in the study observed two
“This is an impressive study,” and Stanford psychologist Anthony hold instructive lessons and provide symbols on a screen and then
comments Daphne Bavelier, a D. Wagner, hope to clarify these needed reality checks that may selected one with the press of a key
professor of psychology at the unknowns in future studies. They safeguard our decisions from bad to learn, through trial and error, which
University of Geneva in Switzerland, also hope to pursue attention-training information or biased advice. image gave the most points. At the
who was not involved in the new interventions that could help improve But, alas, our brain doesn’t work end of the experiment, the subjects
research. “The work is important as attention and memory in people this way. Unlike an impartial out- cashed in their points for money. By
it identifies a source of interindividual prone to distraction. come-weighing machine an engineer careful design, the results ruled out
variability when one is cued to remem- With winter looming and the might design, it learns more from competing interpretations. For
ber information”—the differences in COVID-19 pandemic keeping us some experiences than others. A few example, when freely choosing
attention among the study partici- indoors, Madore feels the new study of these biases may already sound between the two options, people
pants. “These findings are novel and stresses the need to be mindful of familiar: A positivity bias causes us to learned more quickly from the sym-
tell us something important about the how we engage with media. “I think weigh rewards more heavily than pun- bols associated with greater reward
relationship between attention and our data point to the importance of ishments. And a confirmation bias than those associated with punish-
memory, and their link to everyday being consciously aware of attentive- makes us take to heart outcomes that ment, which removed points. Though
behavior . . . , [something] we did not ness,” he says, whether that aware- confirm what we thought was true that finding resembled a positivity bias,
know before,” adds Harvard University ness means resisting media multi- to begin with but discount those that this interpretation was ruled out by
psychologist Daniel L. Schacter, who tasking during school lectures or show we were wrong. A new study, trials that demonstrated participants
was also not involved in the study. work Zoom sessions or making sure however, peels away these biases to could also learn from negative
Madore points out that the new not to idly flip through your Face- find a role for choice at their core. outcomes. In trials that showed the
findings are, for now, correlational. book feed while half watching the A bias related to the choices we outcomes for both symbols after a
They do not indicate if media multi- new Borat movie. —Bret Stetka make explains all the others, says choice was made, subjects learned

5
 NEWS

more from their chosen symbol when firmation bias may sensitize the brain
it gave a higher reward and when the to learn from the outcomes of chosen
unchosen one would deduct a point. actions—which likely represent what
That is, in this free-choice situation, is most important to a given person.
they learned well from obtained gains “The paper shows that this bias
and avoided losses. isn’t necessarily irrational but actually
That result looked like a confirma- a useful mechanism for teaching us
tion bias, with people embracing about the world,” says Philip Corlett
outcomes—positive or negative—that of Yale University, who was not
confirmed they were right. But there involved in the study. He studies the
was more to it. The experiments origins of delusional thinking and
also included “forced choice” trials in agrees that an individual’s perception
which the computer told participants of control in a situation can shift their
which option to select. Here, though interpretation of the events around
the subjects still pressed keys to them. “Feeling as though you are the
make the instructed choices, confir- architect of the outcomes you
mation bias disappeared, with both experience is powerful and certainly
positive and negative outcomes would lead you to strengthen beliefs
weighted equally during learning. about those contingencies much
This impartiality might seem more strongly,” he says.
optimal, yet the learning rates were The role for choice found here
slower in the forced-choice situation tendency persisted in both poor and the brain learns differently and more suggests that our sense of control
than they were in the free-choice rich conditions, when rewards were quickly from free choices than in a situation influences how we
one. It is as though the participants scant or abundant. “Our human forced ones. This skew may seem learn—or do not learn—from our
were less invested in the outcomes— subjects were not capable of adjust- like a cognitive flaw, but in computer experiences. This insight could also
showing ambivalence about learning ing the bias as a function of the models, Palminteri’s team found help explain delusional thinking, in
from them somewhat like a child environment,” Palminteri says. “It that choice-confirmation bias which false beliefs remain impene-

KLAUS VEDFELT GETT Y IMAGES

woodenly practicing their scales on seems to be hardwired.” offered an advantage: it produced trable to contrary evidence. An
the piano to please a parent. This observation means the brain stabler learning over a wide range of outsize feeling of control may
Because the confirmation bias is primed to learn with a bias that is simulated conditions than unbiased contribute to an unflagging adher-
arose only during the free-choice pegged to our freely chosen actions. learning did. So even if this tendency ence to an erroneous belief.
situations, the authors dubbed it Choice tips the balance of learning: occasionally results in bad decisions Delusions can be a hallmark of
“choice-confirmation bias.” The for the same action and outcome, or beliefs, in the long run, choice-con- psychosis, in which they may involve

6
 NEWS

extreme beliefs about alien abduc-

tion or being a god. Milder delusion- “Feeling as though you are the architect of the
like thinking also touches otherwise outcomes you experience is powerful and certainly would
healthy people, such as a sports fan
with a superstition about wearing lead you to strengthen beliefs about those contingencies
a lucky shirt to ensure a team’s win. much more strongly.”
More harmfully, the current corona-
—Philip Corlett
virus pandemic has wrought some
delusions of its own, such as
one that holds that mask wearing suggest, it may be more effective to agency, even when they’re free to lished preprint study that tracked
causes sickness. examine their sense of control and choose what to do, which should not changing levels of paranoia before
So a false belief remains fixed, choices than to try to convince them be the case,” says study leader and during the the global spread
and any outcomes that contradict with contradictory evidence—which, Emilie Caspar of the Free University of COVID-19.
it are not accepted by the brain. If over and over, has not been shown of Brussels (ULB). It’s not clear whether the new-
choice is the point of reference that to work. Whether a diluted feeling of control found choice-confirmation bias
governs our learning style (with or Another question raised by this affected those subjects’ learning could inform public health messag-
without confirmation bias), then research is: What might influence a was not studied, and current work ing during a pandemic. For example,
maybe something about choice or person’s sense of control? It may be is examining whether this mindset maybe voluntary mask wearing
an inflated sense of control pushes an inherent feature of an individual’s follows participants beyond a military should be encouraged and coupled
people toward delusions. Perhaps personality. Or it could be more setting. But if a person’s sense of with rewards for choosing to put on
individuals with delusions are pliable, as suggested by a recent control influences the strength of a face covering and occasional
choosing to have particular experi- study of people in the military in their choice-confirmation bias, punishments for not doing so.
ences to support a false belief and Belgium published in Nature Com- it is interesting to consider the Palminteri says it is hard to
choosing to interpret information in munications. The paper reported a impact of 2020—a year battered by extrapolate from his experiments
a way that supports that belief. This greater sense of control among the pandemic and economic and to the messy, complicated and
possibility has not been tested. senior cadets, who are further along political uncertainty—on an individu- somewhat removed contingencies
Questions for future research to in their officer training and give al’s cognition. of mask wearing. But the stark
answer, however, would be how orders, compared to privates, who “There’s this general sense that bottom line is that biased thinking
beliefs are updated in a person with obey them. The latter individuals’ the rules don’t apply anymore, and runs deep in the human psyche.
delusions and whether this process sense of control, also called agency, that is really unmooring for people “Even when the stakes are so high,
differs when choices are forced or was equally diminished in both and can lead to unpredictable, you may think humans would behave
made freely. To help individuals with free-choice and forced-choice irrational behavior,” says Corlett, who rationally,” he says. “But that’s far
delusions, the current findings situations. “They don’t experience recently conducted a not yet pub- from clear.” —Michele Solis

7
 NEWS

AI Assesses
Alzheimer’s Risk
by Analyzing
Word Usage
New models used writing samples
to predict the onset of the disease
with 70 percent accuracy

Artificial intelligence could soon help

screen for Alzheimer’s disease by
analyzing writing. A team from IBM
and Pfizer says it has trained AI
models to spot early signs of the
notoriously stealthy illness by looking
at linguistic patterns in word usage.
Other researchers have already
trained various models to look for
signs of cognitive impairments,
including Alzheimer’s, by using Certain types of word usage can serve
as early signs of cognitive impairment.
different types of data, such as brain
scans and clinical test results. But
the latest work stands out because and more diverse populations, IBM-run study were published in research at IBM. “It might actually
it used historical information from researchers say they could predict October in EClinicalMedicine. alert you to some changes that
the multigenerational Framingham the development of Alzheimer’s a The new AI models provide “an [indicate] you ought to then go do

MIGUEL NAVARRO GETT Y IMAGES

Heart Study, which has been track- number of years before symptoms augmentation to expert practitioners a more complete exam.”
ing the health of more than 14,000 become severe enough for typical in how you would see some subtle To train these models, the re-
people from three generations since diagnostic methods to pick up. And changes earlier in time, before the searchers used digital transcriptions
1948. If the new models’ ability to such a screening tool would not clinical diagnosis has been achieved,” of handwritten responses from
pick up trends in such data holds up require invasive tests or scans. The says Ajay Royyuru, vice president Framingham Heart Study partici-
in forward-looking studies of bigger results of the Pfizer-funded and of health care and life sciences pants who were asked to describe a

8
 NEWS

picture of a woman who is apparent- caveats to the new paper as well. The new models might have because some people may not want
ly preoccupied with washing dishes The AI focused on the oldest been more accurate if it could have to even know how likely they are to
while two kids raid a cookie jar group of Framingham study partici- incorporated handwriting, Au sug- develop Alzheimer’s disease—a
behind her back. These descriptions pants, who mostly represent a gests. This ability could have provided condition that is currently irreversible.
did not preserve the handwriting non-Hispanic white population. This additional clues, such as evidence of Training models on spoken rather
from the original responses, says limits how much the results can be tiny tremors, switching between print than written samples might prove
Rhoda Au, director of neuropsychol- generalized to more diverse commu- and cursive, and very tiny letters. more practical for achieving the
ogy at the Framingham study and a nities in the U.S. and the rest of the “There are a lot of . . . features that broadest reach in the long run, given
professor at Boston University. (Her world, Au notes. It also remains [the researchers] did not account for, that writing requires literacy while
team was responsible for transcrib- unclear how the AI would perform in which, combined with linguistic speech does not. Novikova and her
ing data for the new paper but did larger populations: the EClinicalMed- features, would have probably colleagues at Winterlight Labs have
not participate beyond that.) Yet icine study’s data set involved just created an even more predictive been focusing heavily on teaching AI
even without the physical handwrit- 40 people who eventually developed model,” Au says. The IBM models to analyze the acoustic and linguistic
ing, IBM says its main AI model was dementia and 40 “controls” who did also did not include data from spoken characteristics in spoken words. And
able to detect linguistic features not, notes Jekaterina Novikova, language. Using AI speech analysis Au has been recording both speech
that are sometimes related to early director of machine learning at to diagnose Alzheimer’s is a growing and handwriting, using digital pens to
signs of cognitive impairment. They Winterlight Labs in Toronto. Noviko- area of research, and other systems capture the latter, for her research.
include certain misspellings, repeat- va, who was not involved in the new have focused on detecting changes IBM seems to be thinking along the
ed words and the use of simplified study, also questions whether the in audio samples. These contain same lines for its own future work.
phrases rather than grammatically performance of IBM’s AI would clues such as speech pauses, which “We are in the process of leverag-
complex sentences. This evidence is change when predicting the onset of are not found in writing. ing this technology to better under-
in line with clinicians’ understanding Alzheimer’s at different points in time Whether written or spoken, stand diseases such as schizophre-
of how Alzheimer’s disease can prior to diagnosis. language samples offer a relatively nia, [amyotrophic lateral sclerosis]
impact language, Royyuru says. Still, she and Au praise the paper noninvasive source of information for and Parkinson's disease and are
The main model achieved 70 as a solid contribution to the field monitoring people’s cognitive health, doing so in prospective studies [that]
percent accuracy in predicting which that might draw more attention and compared with brain scans and other analyze spoken speech samples,
of the Framingham participants resources to AI detection of Alzhei- laboratory tests. Collecting such given with consent from similar
eventually developed dementia mer’s. “What I like personally about language data could be done cognitive verbal tests,” says Guiller-
associated with Alzheimer’s disease the [study] is that it’s one of the very cheaply and remotely—though doing mo Cecchi, a co-author of the new
before the age of 85. This result was few works that analyzes the big- so would still require strict informed study and a principal researcher
based on historical data rather than scale, real-life data that was collect- consent and privacy safeguards for for computational psychiatry and
actually predicting future events, ed over a very long period of time,” the individuals creating the samples, neuroimaging at IBM.
however—and there are other Novikova says. Royyuru says. This is especially true —Jeremy Hsu

9
 NEWS

ples or eight food-scented cotton

Our Brain Is Better pads were placed in different loca-
tions. When they arrived at a sample,
at Remembering the participants would taste the food
Where to Find or smell the cotton and rate how
Brownies Than much they liked it. Four of the food
samples were high-calorie, including
Cherry Tomatoes brownies and potato chips, and the
Humans’ spatial recall makes other four, including cherry tomatoes
mental notes about the location and apples, were low in calories—diet
of high-calorie foods foods, you might call them.
After the taste test, the partici-
pants were asked to identify the loca-
The human brain is hardwired to map tion of each sample on a map of the
our surroundings. This trait is called room. They were nearly 30 percent
spatial memory—our ability to more accurate at mapping the
remember certain locations and high-calorie samples versus the
where objects are in relation to one low-calorie ones, regardless of how important and regularly occurring remember fitness-relevant informa-
another. New findings published in much they liked those foods or odors. problem for early humans weathering tion particularly well, [including] high
October in Scientific Reports suggest They were also 243 percent more the climate shifts of the Pleistocene caloric content.”
that one major feature of our spatial accurate when presented with actual epoch. “Those with a better memory We tend to think of primates such
recall is efficiently locating high-calo- foods, as opposed to the food scents. for where and when high-calorie as ourselves as having lost the acute
rie, energy-rich food. The study’s “Our main takeaway message is food resources would be available sense of smell seen in many other
authors believe human spatial memo- that human minds seem to be were likely to have a survival—or mammals in favor of sharp eyesight.
ry ensured that our hunter-gatherer designed for efficiently locating fitness—advantage,” she explains. And to a large degree, we humans
ancestors could prioritize the location high-calorie foods in our environ- “This looks like a nice piece of have developed that way. But the
of reliable nutrition, giving them an ment,” says Rachelle de Vries, a Ph.D. work,” says James Nairne, a cognitive new findings support the notion that

RUTA LIPSKIJA GETT Y IMAGES

evolutionary leg up. candidate in human nutrition and psychology professor at Purdue our sniffer is not altogether terrible:
In the study, researchers at health at Wageningen University University, who was not involved in “These results suggest that human
Wageningen University & Research and lead author of the new paper. the new research. “Memory evolved minds continue to house a cognitive
in the Netherlands observed 512 par- De Vries feels her team’s findings so that we can remember things that system optimized for energy-effi-
ticipants follow a fixed path through a support the idea that locating aid our survival or reproduction— cient foraging within erratic food
room where either eight food sam- valuable caloric resources was an hence, it’s not surprising that we habitats of the past and highlight the

10
 NEWS

often underestimated capabilities of

the human olfactory sense,” the Why Hatred and
authors wrote.
One drawback of our spatial skills, “Othering” of Politi-
as they relate to sustenance, is our cal Foes Has Spiked
modern taste for junk food. With a life to Extreme Levels
span of not much more than 30— The new political polarization
as was the case for humans until casts rivals as alien, unlikable
relatively recently—chronic diseases and morally contemptible
such as diabetes were not a concern
for our ancestors. If you came across
a rich grove of fruit trees, you con- In 1950 the American Political Science
sumed all the sugar you could to help Association issued a report expressing
ensure your survival. Now our taste concern that Americans exhibited an
for sweets and fats contributes to a insufficient degree of political polariza-
global obesity epidemic and has us tion. What a difference a new millenni-
reaching for candy over kale. “In a um makes. As we approached 2020’s
Donald Trump supporter argues with a Joe Biden supporter on the street outside
way, our minds (and bodies) may be Election Day, the U.S. political land- Sacramento McClellan Airport as President Trump was being briefed on wildfires in a hangar
mismatched to our current ‘obe- scape had become a Grand Canyon in Sacramento, Calif., on September 14, 2020.
sogenic’ food-rich circumstances,” separating blue and red Americans.
de Vries says. “We have reason to So why is this happening? In a which a group conceives of its rivals group to view its opponents as
suspect that the high-calorie spatial review of studies published in October as wholly alien in every way. morally repugnant. This level of
memory bias could stimulate people in the journal Science, 15 prominent This toxic form of polarization has political divisiveness on both sides
to choose high-calorie foods by researchers from across the country fundamentally altered political dis- creates a feedback loop of hatred
making high-calorie options easier or characterize a new type of polarization course, public civility and even the way and leaves the U.S. open to manipula-
more convenient to find and obtain.” that has gripped the U.S. This phe- politicians govern. It can be captured tion by foreign powers that wish to
“We’re more likely to remember nomenon differs from the familiar in Republicans’ admiration for Donald further these internal rifts. On the

GABRIELLE LURIE GETT Y IMAGES

sweet things, which was a real plus divergence each party holds on policy Trump’s ability to taunt and “dominate” horizon, however, are a few ideas
for most of our evolutionary history,” issues related to the economy, foreign liberals—distilled to the expression about how to address these social
Nairne adds. “But this is problematic policy and the role of social safety “own the libs.” and political divisions.
in today’s world.. . . We’re still walking nets. Instead it centers on members of The Science paper addresses the Scientific American delved into
around with Stone Age brains.” one party holding a basic abhorrence rise of political sectarianism—the these issues with Eli J. Finkel, a
—Bret Stetka for their opponents—an “othering” in growing tendency of one political psychology professor at Northwest-

11
 NEWS

ern University and lead author of Your paper proposes a new way I live in a red county in a blue state, to be, and there’s a vast exaggeration
the new Science paper. [An edited of framing polarization, which and this election cycle, I’m seeing in our minds about what the other
transcript of the interview follows.] you call political sectarianism. something new. People aren’t just party looks like. Republicans vastly
Can you explain what this is and displaying political signs. They are overestimated the proportion of
There’s a sense in the U.S. today the three core ingredients you flying Trump flags on flagpoles and Democrats that are sexual minorities,
that the country is more divided have identified? from the back of their pickup such as LGBT [individuals], and
than ever before. Does the Sectarianism is a highly moralized trucks. Do you have any thoughts Democrats overestimated the
research bear out this impression? political identity that views the other about the symbolism of the flag percentage of Republicans that make
No, 1861 was worse—with many, side as contemptible. The moral and this display of allegiance? at least $250,000 a year. And so you
many hundreds of thousands of component is foundational. You can The debate going on is increasingly end up with a situation where you
people dying in an extraordinarily imagine that you are a member of divorced from ideas. One of the things think, “I can’t relate to them, and they
bloody war. In some ways, 1968 was a religious sect, and you very, very people on the right love about Trump hate people like me.” So of course,
scarier, with all those assassinations strongly believe that you possess the is that he “owns the libs.” I mean, he you feel like it’s reasonable to lash
and the protests at the Democratic full moral truth and that the other drives liberals absolutely bonkers. out at them or perhaps deny them
[National] Convention in Chicago. But people aren’t going to heaven or are That is very, very satisfying. That’s not some amount of democratic liberties
there is something new about the evil. That is the tenor of the thinking about ideas. That’s about conquest. if the stakes are high in terms of your
current type of polarization. What used that we see across the political divide That’s about defeating the bad people political goals. But even just alerting
to happen was: there were lots of these days. on the other side. These identities are people that actually that other group
conservatives in the Democratic party The three key components: The becoming more central to who we are is far less different or hates you far
and lots of liberals in the Republican first one is what we call “othering”— as people. In the 1960s nobody cared less than you think [it does] can
party. What we have [now] is an [labeling] these people as so different if you married somebody from the soften the tendency to sacrifice
alignment of social identities that from us that they’re almost incompre- other party. But how would you feel if democratic norms for partisan goals.
correspond to our political identities in hensible. The second part we call your kid married somebody from the
a way that we’ve never seen before. In “aversion”—this idea that they’re not other party now? These days it’s sort What role has the changing media
the paper, we talk about political polar- just different, but they’re dislikable. of a horrifying idea. landscape and the rise of social
ization as a kind of mega identity that The third part is this “moralization,” media played in this polarization?
encompasses a whole bunch of other where they’re morally bankrupt. Polarization also seems to be Well, the effect appears to be large,
identities, so that African-American And when you face a situation like warping people’s beliefs about and the research is still figuring out
people and nonheterosexual people that, is it acceptable to suppress the members of the other party. exactly what it is. One of the most
are overwhelmingly in the Democratic vote a little bit or to engage in some What is happening? interesting findings directly challeng-
Party. You have this alignment in a sort of political chicanery that isn’t Knowing about people’s political es the conventional wisdom that part
way that the two sides feel increasing- really best for democracy? Well, identity now tells you a lot about what of the reason we have so much
ly different from one another. when those are the stakes, of course. their other social identities are likely othering is that people are literally no

12
 NEWS

longer living in the same information sectarianized partisans hate each that if we can just get through all the
of the highly sectarian world. In the
ecosystems, in contrast to an era other—and so they didn’t have to do people who are profiting from all highly sectarian political ecosystem,
where there were three broadcast any of that fancy stuff. They just the divisions and get the truth out politicians lose the incentive to be
news stations. A 2018 study had peo- created avatars that were called there, then, I think, some of the worst
responsive to the entire populace. And
ple who were partisan get exposed to things such as “Blacktivist” or “Army elements of the sectarianism will go they also lose the incentive to com-
some information on the other side. of Jesus,” and then they painted the away, because people [will] realize promise, because you’re much more
So if you’re Republican, you get to other side as diabolical, and then they that they hate people who aren’t thatlikely to get accused of apostasy and
see what Hillary Clinton is saying, or just let it go. And then we did it! We different from them after all. lack of sufficient purity by your side.
if you’re a Democrat, you’re exposed opened up this vulnerability, and all So you get this increasing emphasis
to what Donald Trump is saying. And this geopolitical adversary has to do is
But how do you get people those on the most extreme candidates. This
that actually made it worse. So the to put the content and social media facts? How do you get them to has been more true on the right than
idea that if we expose people to what where people are likely to see it. We even come to the table and listen? on the left, but to some degree, it has
the other side is seeing, things will tweet it; we retweet it. There are no silver bullets. One of been true on both sides.
get better does not appear to be An important caveat here: research the lines of work that holds some
true. And I think that the science just is ambiguous about how effective the promise is some research showing We have a pandemic response
hasn’t figured out how we can tweak campaign was, but there is no ques- that if you just remind everybody that that has become extremely
algorithms in ways that get to some- tion at all that [Russia] tried to do it—
Democrats and Republicans are all polarized, and the science has
thing closer to a common worldview and that extremists on both sides, Americans, that can make them a become a partisan thing. Do you
across the population without further especially on the conservative side, little bit more open-minded. see any solutions?
sectarianizing the populace. were especially likely to play exactly Look, I am not hugely optimistic about
into Russia’s hands. How has sectarianism changed this, but what I would love to pose to
We know that Russia had an the way that politicians are your readers is that they should take
elaborate campaign to influence One solution you propose is to governing? They’re not really personal responsibility for this. There
the outcome of the 2016 election get individuals to talk to people doing so for all of their con- are no longer people who speak to the
and that it is continuing these from the opposite party. But how stituents anymore, are they? middle. There’s no longer a Walter
efforts in 2020. Has political do we talk across the divide? No. I mean, why would they? We’re so Cronkite. So to some degree, each
sectarianism made the U.S. more How do you talk to someone deeply immersed in our . .. side, and individual person is going to have to
vulnerable to meddling from whose party has called you the that’s how you get people like Donald take some amount of responsibility to
foreign actors? “enemy of the people”? Trump and other people saying, “We’re say, “I’m going to debate ideas, and I’m
Completely. [Russian agents] didn’t try The pictures that we carry around in not going to pass a law that’s going to going to debate them in ways that
to bomb us, and they didn’t even try to our head about the other side are help blue states.” That’s not the way don’t talk about evil or hatred or shame
infect our computers. They knew that nothing other than characters. One of the government was supposed to but really understand the nuance and
we hate each other—at least highly the things that I think holds promise is function, but it is the logical end point complexities.” —Christie Aschwanden

➦ 13
 Secrets to Surviving
Stressful Times

BONNIE TARPEY GETT Y IMAGES

Stanford neurobiologist Andrew Huberman discusses the two things we can always control,
even during stressful political times and scary COVID pandemic
By Jessica Wapner

14
W
Jessica Wapner is a science writer and author of The Philadelphia
Chromosome: A Genetic Mystery, a Lethal Cancer, and the
Improbable Invention of a Lifesaving Treatment (The Experiment,
paperbound, 2014).

WE ARE LIVING THROUGH AN INARGUABLY CHALLENGING TIME. If you need to run and catch your train, you want all the
things that go along with stress to go pursue that train.
The U.S. has been facing its highest daily COVID-19 case counts yet. But if the stress response is spontaneous or excessive, it
can start to feel pathological.
Uncertainty and division continue to dog the aftermath of the presidential
election. We've begun a long, cold winter, when socializing outdoors will What is stress’s relationship to vision?
When you see something exciting or stressful—a news
be less of an option. We are a nation and a world under stress. headline, a fraudulent credit-card charge—heart rate
increases; breathing increases. One of the most power-
But Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist at Stanford arousal and panic. ful changes is with vision. The pupils dilate, and there’s
University who studies the visual system, sees matters a This growing understanding of how vision and breath- a change in the position of the lens in the eye. Your visual
bit differently. Stress, he says, is not just about the con- ing directly affect the brain—rather than the more nebu- system goes into the equivalent of portrait mode on a
tent of what we are reading or the images we are seeing. lous categories of the mind and feelings—can come in smartphone. Your field of vision narrows. You see one
It is about how our eyes and breathing change in handy as we continue to face mounting challenges around thing in sharper relief, and everything else becomes
response to the world and the cascades of events that fol- the globe, across the U.S. and in our own lives. Scientific blurry. Your eyeballs rotate just slightly toward your
low. And both of these bodily processes also offer us easy American spoke with Huberman about how it all works. nose, which sets your depth of field and focus on a single
and accessible releases from stress. [An edited transcript of the interview follows.] location. This is a primitive and ancient mechanism by
Huberman’s assertions are based on both established which stress controls the visual field.
and emerging science. He has spent the past 20 years What is stress?
unraveling the inner workings of the visual system. In Stress is one position along the continuum of what we How does this visual mode affect the body?
2018, for example, his laboratory reported its discovery call autonomic arousal. At one end of this continuum This focal vision activates the sympathetic nervous sys-
of brain pathways connected with fear and paralysis would be somebody in a coma. At the very other end of tem. All the neurons from your neck to the top of your
that respond specifically to visual threats. And a small that continuum is a full-blown panic attack: heart rac- pelvis get activated at once and deploy a bunch of trans-
but growing body of research makes the case that alter- ing, pupils dilating, hyperventilating. In between, we mitters and chemicals that make you feel agitated and
ing our breathing can alter our brain. In 2017 Mark Kras- have lower levels of stress, [and the states of being] alert want to move.
now of Stanford, Jack Feldman of the University of Cali- and focused, sleepy, and asleep. Stress is generally a high
fornia, Los Angeles, and their colleagues identified a level of autonomic arousal. It was designed to be a Why is the visual field so connected to this
tight link between neurons responsible for controlling generic response to mobilize the body. brain state?
breathing and the region of the brain responsible for Sometimes that’s well matched to the demands of life. Something that most people don’t appreciate is that the

15
eyes are actually two pieces of brain. They are not con- exhales. Children also do this when they are sobbing. A a bridge between the conscious and unconscious control
nected to the brain; they are brain. During develop- physiological sigh, two or three times, is the fastest way of the body.
ment, the eyes are part of the embryonic forebrain. Your that we are aware of to bring the level of autonomic When you inhale, the diaphragm moves down, and
eyes get extruded from the skull during the first trimes- arousal back down to baseline. the heart gets a little bigger because it has more space.
ter, and then they reconnect to the rest of the brain. So Blood flows a little more slowly through the heart under
they’re part of the central nervous system. Why does this breathing pattern work that condition. So the heart then signals to the brain,
Having the eyes outside the skull orients the organ- to reduce stress? and the brain says, “Oh, we’d better speed up the heart.”
ism to the time of day. But it also means that you’ve got Our lungs consist of tons of tiny little sacs of air, millions So if you want to increase your heart rate, you inhale
two pieces of brain that can register events in the envi- of sacs of air. As we get stressed, these little sacs col- more than you exhale. The opposite is also true. Every
ronment at a distance in order to adjust the overall state lapse. They deflate like a balloon. Physiological sighs time you exhale, you’re slowing down the heart rate.
of alertness in the rest of the brain and body. It would be cause the sacs to reinflate. Carbon dioxide is the trigger
terrible if we had to wait until things were in contact for breathing: We don’t breathe because we need oxy- So with vision and breathing, you are looking
with us before we could prepare to react to them. gen. We breathe because carbon dioxide levels get too at physiological processes that are automatic
high. Physiological sighs offload the maximum amount but that we can also control.
Is there a visual mode associated with of carbon dioxide. Yes. If I make you stressed, you’ll perspire. But you
calmness that can change our stress levels? wouldn’t say, “I’m going to make myself sweat, and
Yes: panoramic vision, or optic flow. When [you] look at How are you studying the link between therefore I’ll be stressed.” You can’t control your heart
a horizon or at a broad vista, you don’t look at one thing breathing and stress? rate directly. You can’t control your adrenals with your
for very long. If you keep your head still, you can dilate David Spiegel, associate chair of psychiatry at Stanford, mind. But you can control your diaphragm, which
your gaze so you can see far into the periphery—above, and I are currently leading a study of breathing in which means you control your breathing, which means you
below and to the sides of you. That mode of vision 125 participants have been wearing wrist monitors that control your heart rate, which means you control your
releases a mechanism in the brain stem involved in vig- measure breathing, sleep duration, heart rate variabil- alertness. You can control your vision, which thereby
ilance and arousal. ity and heart rate. The participants are divided into four controls your level of alertness, your level of stress and
One can actually turn off the stress response by chang- groups of different breathing modalities: meditation for your level of calmness.
ing the way that we are viewing our environment, re- five minutes a day; repeated physiological sighs; box Vision and breathing are essential as levers or entry
gardless of what’s in that environment. breathing (equal durations of inhale, hold, exhale, hold, points to autonomic arousal because they are available
repeated for five minutes); and deliberate hyperventila- for conscious control at any point. M
You are also researching breathing as a way tion repeated a few times. We want to see which pat-
to regulate autonomic arousal. terns of breathing most rapidly reduce the stress re-
Yes. Vision and breathing are, without question, the sponse. We’re analyzing the data now.
fastest and most obvious ways to control autonomic
arousal. The way we breathe impacts our states of stress How are breathing and the brain connected?
very strongly. The relationship is anchored through the diaphragm,
Data show that during sleep and claustrophobic the only organ in the body that is skeletal muscle de-
states, people and animals generate what are called signed for voluntary movement. You can immediately
“physiological sighs,” double inhales followed by take control of the diaphragm. So breathing represents

➦ 16
 F S QQZ ZWY

F S QQZ ZWY

Conservative
and
Liberal
Brains
Might
Have
Some
Real
Differences
Scanners try to watch the red-blue divide

GETTY IMAGES
play out underneath the skull
By Lydia Denworth

17
 Lydia Denworth is a Brooklyn, N.Y.–based science writer,
a contributing editor for Scientific American, and author
of Friendship: The Evolution, Biology, and Extraordinary Power
of Life's Fundamental Bond (W. W. Norton, 2020).

n 1968 a debate was held

I
ance and complexity. If you had put Buckley and Vidal in ory, reasoning and even our perception of truth. Know-
between conservative thinker a magnetic resonance imaging machine and presented ing this will not magically bring us all together, but
them with identical images, you would likely have seen researchers hope that continuing to understand the way
William F. Buckley, Jr., and
differences in their brain, especially in the areas that pro- partisanship influences our brain might at least allow us
liberal writer Gore Vidal. cess social and emotional information. The volume of to counter its worst effects: the divisiveness that can tear
It was hoped that these gray matter, or neural cell bodies, making up the anteri- apart the shared values required to retain a sense of
two members of opposing or cingulate cortex, an area that helps detect errors and national unity.
resolve conflicts, tends to be larger in liberals. And the Social scientists who observe behaviors in the political
intellectual elites would show
amygdala, which is important for regulating emotions sphere can gain substantial insight into the hazards of
Americans living through tumultuous and evaluating threats, is larger in conservatives. errant partisanship. Political neuroscience, however, at-
times that political disagreements While these findings are remarkably consistent, they tempts to deepen these observations by supplying evi-
could be civilized. That idea did not are probabilities, not certainties—meaning there is plen- dence that a belief or bias manifests as a measure of brain
last for long. Instead Buckley and ty of individual variability. The political landscape in- volume or activity—demonstrating that an attitude, con-
cludes lefties who own guns, right-wingers who drive Pri- viction or misconception is, in fact, genuine. “Brain struc-
Vidal descended rapidly into name-
uses and everything in between. There is also an unre- ture and function provide more objective measures than
calling. Afterward, they sued each solved chicken-and-egg problem: Do brains start out many types of survey responses,” says political neurosci-
other for defamation. processing the world differently, or do they become entist Hannah Nam of Stony Brook University. “Partici-
increasingly different as our politics evolve? Further- pants may be induced to be more honest when they think
The story of the 1968 debate opens a well-regarded more, it is still not entirely clear how useful it is to know that scientists have a ‘window’ into their brains.” That is
2013 book called Predisposed, which introduced the gen- that a Republican’s brain lights up over X while a Demo- not to say that political neuroscience can be used as a tool
eral public to the field of political neuroscience. The crat’s responds to Y. to “read minds,” but it can pick up discrepancies between
authors, a trio of political scientists at the University So what can the study of neural activity suggest about stated positions and underlying cognitive processes.
of Nebraska–Lincoln and Rice University, argued that if political behavior? The still emerging field of political Brain scans are also unlikely to be used as a biomarker
the differences between liberals and conservatives seem neuroscience has begun to move beyond describing for specific political results because the relationship
profound and even unbridgeable, it is because they basic structural and functional brain differences be- between the brain and politics is not one-to-one. Yet
are rooted in personality characteristics and biolog- tween people of different ideological persuasions—gaug- “neurobiological features could be used as a predictor of
ical predispositions. ing who has the biggest amygdala—to more nuanced political outcomes—just not in a deterministic way,”
On the whole, the research shows, conservatives desire investigations of how certain cognitive processes under- Nam says.
security, predictability and authority more than liberals lie our political thinking and decision-making. Partisan- To study how we process political information, in a
do, and liberals are more comfortable with novelty, nu- ship does not just affect our vote; it influences our mem- 2017 paper political psychologist Ingrid Haas of the Uni-

18
versity of Nebraska-Lincoln and her colleagues created “Brain structure er amygdala volume is associated with a lower likelihood
hypothetical candidates from both major parties and of participating in political protests,” Nam says. “That
assigned each candidate a set of policy statements on and function provide makes sense in so far as political protest is a behavior
issues such as school prayer, Medicare and defense spend- more objective measures that says, ‘We’ve got to change the system.’” Understand-
ing. Most statements were what you would expect: Re- ing the influence of partisanship on identity, even down
publicans, for instance, usually favor increasing defense
than many types to the level of neurons, “helps to explain why people place
spending, and Democrats generally support expanding of survey responses.” party loyalty over policy, and even over truth,” argued
Medicare. But some statements were surprising, such as —Hannah Nam psychologists Jay Van Bavel and Andrea Pereira, both
a conservative expressing a pro-choice position or a lib- then at New York University, in Trends in Cognitive Sci-
eral arguing for invading Iran. ences in 2018. In short, we derive our identities from both
Haas put 58 people with diverse political views in a conflicting evidence, has been a popular topic in politi- our individual characteristics, such as being a parent,
brain scanner. On each trial, participants were asked cal neuroscience because there is a lot of it going around. and our group memberships, such as being a New York-
whether it was good or bad that a candidate held a posi- While partisanship plays a role, motivated reasoning er or an American. These affiliations serve multiple social
tion on a particular issue and not whether they personal- goes deeper than that. Just as most of us like to think we goals: they feed our need to belong and desire for closure
ly agreed or disagreed with it. Framing the task that way are good-hearted human beings, people generally prefer and predictability, and they endorse our moral values.
allowed the researchers to look at neural processing as a to believe that the society they live in is desirable, fair And our brain represents them much as it does other
function of whether the information was expected or and legitimate. “Even if society isn’t perfect, and there forms of social identity.
unexpected—what they termed congruent or incongru- are things to be criticized about it, there is a preference Among other things, partisan identity clouds memory.
ent. They also considered participants’ own party identi- to think that you live in a good society,” Nam says. When In a 2013 study, liberals were more likely to misremem-
fication and whether there was a relationship between that preference is particularly strong, she adds, “that ber George W. Bush remaining on vacation in the after-
ideological differences and how the subjects did the task. can lead to things like simply rationalizing or accepting math of Hurricane Katrina, and conservatives were more
Liberals proved more attentive to incongruent infor- long-standing inequalities or injustices.” Psychologists likely to falsely recall seeing Barack Obama shaking
mation, especially for Democratic candidates. When they call the cognitive process that lets us do so “system hands with the president of Iran. Partisan identity also
encountered such a position, it took them longer to make justification.” shapes our perceptions. When they were shown a video
a decision about whether it was good or bad. They were Nam and her colleagues set out to understand which of a political protest in a 2012 study, liberals and conser-
likely to show activation for incongruent information in brain areas govern the affective processes that underlie vatives were more or less likely to favor calling police
two brain regions: the insula and anterior cingulate cor- system justification. They found that the volume of gray depending on their interpretation of the protest’s goal. If
tex, which “are involved in helping people form and think matter in the amygdala is linked to the tendency to per- the objective was liberal (opposing the military barring
about their attitudes,” Haas says. How do out-of-the-ordi- ceive the social system as legitimate and desirable. Their openly gay people from service), the conservatives were
nary positions affect later voting? Haas suspects that interpretation is that “this preference to system justify more likely to want the cops. The opposite was true when
engaging more with such information might make voters is related to these basic neurobiological predispositions participants thought it was a conservative protest (oppos-
more likely to punish candidates for it later. But she to be alert to potential threats in your environment,” ing an abortion clinic). The more strongly we identify
acknowledges that they may instead exercise a particular Nam says. with a party, the more likely we are to double down on
form of bias called “motivated reasoning” to downplay After the original study, Nam’s team followed a subset our support for it. That tendency is exacerbated by ram-
the incongruity. of the participants for three years and found that their pant political misinformation, and too often identity
Motivated reasoning, in which people work hard to brain structure predicted the likelihood of whether they wins out over accuracy.
justify their opinions or decisions, even in the face of participated in political protests during that time. “Larg- If we understand what is at work cognitively, we might

19
 YWZZQQSF

be able to intervene and try to ease some of the negative

effects of partisanship. The tension between accuracy
and identity probably involves a brain region called the
orbitofrontal cortex, which computes the value of goals
and beliefs and is strongly connected to memory, execu-
tive function and attention. If identity helps determine
the value of different beliefs, it can also distort them, Van
Bavel says. Appreciating that political affiliation fulfills
an evolutionary need to belong suggests we should cre-
ate alternative means of belonging—depoliticizing the
novel coronavirus by calling on us to come together as
Americans, for instance. And incentivizing the need to be
accurate could increase the importance accorded that
goal: paying money for accurate responses or holding
people accountable for incorrect ones have been shown
to be effective.
The partisan influences before the November 3 elec-
tion were nearly impossible to ignore because the volume
of political information only increased, reminding us of
our political identities daily. But here is some good news:
a large 2020 study at Harvard University found that par-
ticipants consistently overestimated the level of out-
group negativity toward their in-group. In other words,
the other side may not dislike us quite so much as we
think. Inaccurate information heightened the negative
bias, and (more good news) correcting inaccurate infor-
mation significantly reduced it.
“The biology and neuroscience of politics might be
useful in terms of what is effective at getting through to
people,” Van Bavel says. “Maybe the way to interact with
someone who disagrees with me politically is not to try to
persuade them on the deep issue, because I might never
get there. It’s more to try to understand where they’re
coming from and shatter their stereotypes.” M

➦ 20
Has the Drug-Based
Approach to Mental
Illness Failed?
Journalist Robert Whitaker is more concerned than ever
that psychiatric medications do more harm than good
By John Horgan

K ARL TAPALES GETT Y IMAGES

21
 John Horgan directs the Center for Science Writings at the
Stevens Institute of Technology. His books include The End
of Science, The End of War and Mind-Body Problems, available for
free at mindbodyproblems.com. For many years, he wrote the
immensely popular blog Cross Check for Scientific American.

O ne of the most impressive, disturbing works

of science journalism I’ve encountered
is Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets,
Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise
of Mental Illness in America, published
in 2010. In the book, which I review here,
award-winning journalist Robert Whitaker presents evidence that medica-
tions for mental illness, over time and in the aggregate, cause net harm.
In 2012 I brought Whitaker to my school to give a talk, in part to check him
out. He struck me as a smart, sensible, meticulous reporter whose in-depth
Horgan: When and why did you start reporting on
mental health?
Whitaker: It came about in a very roundabout way. In
1994 I had co-founded a publishing company called Cen-
terWatch that covered the business aspects of the “clin-
ical trials industry,” and I soon became interested in
writing about how financial interests were corrupting
drug trials. Risperdal and Zyprexa had just come to mar-
ket, and after I used a Freedom of Information request
to obtain the fda’s review of those two drugs, I could see
that psychiatric drug trials were a prime example of that
corruption. In addition, I had learned of nimh-funded
research that seemed abusive of schizophrenia patients,
and in 1998 I co-wrote a series for the Boston Globe on
abuses of patients in psychiatric research.
My interest was in that broader question of cor-
ruption and abuse in research settings and not specific
to psychiatry.
research had led him to startling conclusions. Since then, far from encounter- At that time, I still had a conventional understanding
of psychiatric drugs. My understanding was that re-
ing persuasive rebuttals of Whitaker’s thesis, I keep finding corroborations searchers were making great advances in understanding
mental disorders and that they had found that schizo-
of it. If Whitaker is right, modern psychiatry, together with the pharma- phrenia and depression were due to chemical imbalanc-
es in the brain, which psychiatric medications then put
ceutical industry, has inflicted iatrogenic harm on millions of people. back in balance. But while reporting that series, I stum-
Reports of surging mental distress during the pandemic have me thinking bled upon studies that didn’t make sense to me, for they
belied what I knew to be “true,” and that was what sent
once again about Whitaker’s views and wondering how they have evolved. me down this path of reporting on mental health.
First, there were two studies by the World Health
Below he answers some questions. —John Horgan Organization that found that longer-term outcomes for

22
schizophrenia patients in three “developing” countries Thus, our starting point is that “change” is needed, All of these efforts, I think, fit within the framework
were much better than in the U.S. and five other “devel- and while that does have an activist element, I think of “journalism.”
oped” countries. This didn’t really make sense to me, journalism—serving as an informational source—is However, I do understand that I am going beyond the
and then I read this: in the developing countries, they fundamental to that effort. As an organization, we are boundaries of usual “science journalism” when I publish
used antipsychotic drugs acutely but not chronically. not asserting that we have the answers for what that critiques of the “evidence base” related to psychiatric
Only 16 percent of patients in the developing countries change should be, which would be the case if we were drugs. I did this in my books Mad in America and Anat-
were regularly maintained on antipsychotics, whereas striving to be activists. Instead we strive to be a forum omy of an Epidemic, as well as a book I co-wrote, Psychi-
in the developed countries this was the standard of care. for promoting an informed societal discussion about atry under the Influence. I have continued to do this
That didn’t fit with my understanding that these drugs this subject. with MIA Reports.
were an essential treatment for schizophrenia patients. Here’s what we do: The usual practice in “science journalism” is to look
Second, a study by Harvard researchers found that to the “experts” in the field and report on what they tell
schizophrenia outcomes had declined in the previous 20 • We publish daily summaries of scientific re- about their findings and practices. While reporting and
years and were now no better than they had been in the search with findings that are rarely covered in the writing Mad in America, however, I came to understand
first third of the 20th century. That didn’t fit with my mainstream media. You’ll find, in the archives of that when “experts” in psychiatry spoke to journalists
understanding that psychiatry had made great progress our research reports, a steady parade of findings they regularly hewed to a story that they were expected
in treating people so diagnosed. that counter the conventional narrative. For in- to tell, which was a story of how their field was making
Those studies led to my questioning the story that our stance, there are reports of how the effort to find great progress in understanding the biology of disorders
society told about those we call “mad,” and I got a book genes for mental disorders has proven rather fruit- and of drug treatments that—as I was told over and over
contract to dig into that question. That project turned less, or of how social inequalities trigger mental when I co-wrote the series for the Boston Globe—fixed
into Mad in America, which told of the history of our distress, or of poor long-term outcomes with our chemical imbalances in the brain. But their own science,
society’s treatment of the seriously mentally ill, from current paradigm of care. And so forth—we simply I discovered, regularly belied the story they were telling
colonial times until today—a history marked by bad sci- want these scientific findings to become known. to the media. That’s why I turned to focusing on the sto-
ence and societal mistreatment of those so diagnosed. • We regularly feature interviews with researchers ry that could be dug out from a critical look at their own
and activists and podcasts that explore these issues. scientific literature.
Horgan: Do you still see yourself as a journalist, or are • We launched MIA Reports as a showcase for So what I do in these critiques—such as suicide in the
you primarily an activist? our print journalism. We have published in-depth Prozac era and the impact of antipsychotics on mortali-
Whitaker: I don’t see myself as an “activist” at all. In articles on promising new initiatives in Europe; ty—is review the relevant research and put those find-
my own writings and in the webzine I direct, Mad in investigative pieces on such topics as compulsory ings together into a coherent report. I also look at re-
America, I think you’ll see journalistic practices at work, outpatient treatment; coverage of “news” related search cited in support of mainstream beliefs and see if
albeit in the service of an “activist” mission. to mental health policy in the United States; and the data, in those articles, actually support the conclu-
Here is our mission statement: “Mad in America’s occasional reports on how the mainstream media sions presented in the abstract. None of this is really that
mission is to serve as a catalyst for rethinking psychiat- is covering mental health issues. difficult, and yet I know it is unusual for a journalist to
ric care in the United States (and abroad). We believe • We also publish blogs by professionals, academ- challenge conventional “medical wisdom” in this way.
that the current drug-based paradigm of care has failed ics, people with lived experience, and others Horgan: Anatomy of an Epidemic argues that med-
our society and that scientific research, as well as the with a particular interest in this subject. These ications for mental illness, although they give many
lived experience of those who have been diagnosed with blogs and personal stories are meant to help people short-term relief, cause net harm. Is that a
a psychiatric disorder, calls for profound change.” inform society’s “rethinking” of psychiatric care. fair summary?

23
Whitaker: Yes, although my thinking has evolved some- needed, a societal discussion about the long-term effects doing worse than the more severely ill who got off these
what since I wrote that book. of psychiatric medications. medications. And I presented that comparison in Anato-
I am more convinced than ever that psychiatric medica- I have to confess that I have been disappointed in the my of an Epidemic.
tions, over the long term, cause net harm. I wish that criticism. They mostly have been ad hominem attacks—I By doing that, I was going out on a limb: I was saying
weren’t the case, but the evidence just keeps mounting that cherry-picked the data, or I misunderstood findings, or I that maybe Harrow’s data led to a different conclusion
these drugs, on the whole, worsen long-term outcomes. am just biased, but the critics don’t then say what data I than he had drawn, which was that the antipsychotic med-
My thinking has evolved in this way: I am not so sure missed or point to findings that tell of medications that ication, over the long-term, had a negative effect.
anymore that the medications provide a short-term bene- improve long-term outcomes. I honestly think I could do After Anatomy was published, Harrow and his col-
fit for patient populations as a whole. When you look at the a much better job of critiquing my own work. league Thomas Jobe went back to their data and investi-
short-term studies of antidepressants and antipsychotics, You mention E. Fuller Torrey’s criticism, in which he gated this very possibility. They have subsequently written
the evidence of efficacy in reducing symptoms compared states that I both misrepresented and misunderstood several papers exploring this theme, citing me in one or
with placebo is really pretty marginal and fails to rise to some of the research I cited. I took this seriously and two instances for raising the issue, and they found reason
the level of a “clinically meaningful” benefit. answered it at great length. to conclude that it might be so. They wrote: “How unique
Furthermore, the problem with all of this research is Now if your own “thesis” is indeed flawed, then a critic among medical treatments is it that the apparent efficacy
that there is no real placebo group in the studies. The pla- should be able to point out its flaws while accurately of antipsychotics could diminish over time or become
cebo group is composed of patients who have been with- detailing what you wrote. If that is the case, then you have harmful? There are many examples for other medications
drawn from their psychiatric medications and then ran- good reason to rethink your beliefs. But if a critique of similar long-term effects, with this often occurring as
domized to placebo. Thus, the placebo group is a drug-with- doesn’t meet that standard but rather relies on misrepre- the body readjusts, biologically, to the medications.”
drawal group, and we know that withdrawal from senting what you wrote, then you have reason to conclude Thus, in this instance, I did the following: I accurately
psychiatric drugs can stir myriad negative effects. A medi- that the critic lacks the evidence to make an honest case. reported the results of Harrow’s study and his interpreta-
cation-naïve placebo group would likely have much better And that is how I see Torrey’s critique. tion of his results, and I accurately presented data from
outcomes, and if that were so, how would that placebo For example, Torrey said that I misunderstood Martin his research that told of a possible different interpretation.
response compare with the drug response? Harrow’s research on long-term outcomes for schizophre- The authors then revisited their own data to take up this
In short, research on the short-term effects of psychiat- nia patients. Harrow reported that the recovery rate was inquiry. And yet Torrey’s critique is that I misrepresented
ric drugs is a scientific mess. In fact, a 2017 paper that was eight times higher for those who got off antipsychotic Harrow’s research.
designed to defend the long-term use of antipsychotics medication compared with those who stayed on the drugs. This same criticism, by the way, is still being flung at
nevertheless acknowledged, in an off-hand way, that “no However, in his 2007 paper, Harrow stated that the better me. Here is a recent article in Vice, which, once again,
placebo-controlled trials have been reported in first-epi- outcomes for those who got off medication were because quotes people saying I misrepresent and misunderstand
sode psychosis patients.” Antipsychotics were introduced they had a better prognosis and not because of negative research, with Harrow cited as an example.
65 years ago, and we still don’t have good evidence that drug effects. If you read Anatomy of an Epidemic, you’ll I do want to emphasize that critiques of “my thesis”
they work over the short term in first-episode patients. see that I present his explanation. regarding the long-term effects of psychiatric drugs are
Which is rather startling, when you think of it. Yet in my interview with Harrow, I noted that his own important and to be welcomed. See two papers in partic-
Horgan: Have any of your critics—E. Fuller Torrey, for data showed that those who were diagnosed with milder ular that take this on (here and here), and my response in
example—made you rethink your thesis? psychotic disorders who stayed on antipsychotics fared general to such criticisms, and to the second one.
Whitaker: When the first edition of Anatomy of an Epi- worse over the long term than schizophrenia patients who Horgan: When I criticize psychiatric drugs, people
demic was published in 2010, I knew there would be crit- stopped taking the medication. This was a comparison sometimes tell me that meds saved their lives. You must
ics, and I thought, this will be great. This is just what is that showed the less ill maintained on antipsychotics get this reaction a lot. How do you respond?

24
Whitaker: I do hear that, and when I do, I reply, “Great! emphasis on treatment with antipsychotics and much published two articles about the spinning of results from
I am so glad to know that the medications have worked greater emphasis on helping people reintegrate into fam- a trial of deep-brain stimulation and the suffering of
for you!” But of course, I also hear from many people who ily and community. some patients so treated over the long term. Those arti-
say that the drugs ruined their lives. You have many alternative programs springing up, even cles tell of why it may be difficult to answer that question:
I do think that the individual’s experience of psychiat- at the governmental level. Norway, for instance, ordered its there are financial influences that push for published
ric medication, whether good or bad, should be honored hospital districts to offer “medication-free” treatment for results that tell of a therapeutic success, even if the data
as worthy and “valid.” They are witnesses to their own those who want it, and there is now a private hospital in don’t support that finding, and we have a research envi-
lives, and we should incorporate those voices into our Norway that is devoted to helping chronic patients taper ronment that fails to study long-term outcomes.
societal thinking about the merits of psychiatric drugs. down from their psychiatric medications. In Israel, you The history of somatic treatments for mental disorders
But for the longest time, we’ve heard mostly about the have Soteria houses that have sprung up (sometimes they also provides a reason for caution. It’s a history of one
“good” outcomes in the mainstream media, while those are called stabilizing houses), where use of antipsychotics somatic treatment after another being initially hailed as
with “bad” outcomes were resigned to telling their stories is optional, and the environment—a supportive residential curative, or extremely helpful, and then failing the test of
on Internet forums. What Mad in America has sought to environment—is seen as the principal “therapy.” time. The inventor of frontal lobotomy, Egas Moniz, was
do, in its efforts to serve as a forum for rethinking psychi- You have the U.N. Special Rapporteur for Health, awarded a Nobel Prize for inventing that surgery, which
atry, is provide an outlet for this latter group, so their Dainius Puras, calling for a “revolution” in mental today we understand as a mutilation.
voices can be heard too. health, one that would supplant today’s biological para- It’s important to remain open to the possibility that
The personal accounts, of course, do not change the digm of care with a paradigm that paid more attention somatic treatments may be helpful, at least for some
bottom-line “evidence” that shows up in outcome studies to social justice factors—poverty, inequality, etc. as a patients. But there is plenty of reason to be wary of initial
of larger groups of patients. Unfortunately, that tells of source of mental distress. claims of success.
medications that, on the whole, do more harm than good. All of those initiatives tell of an effort to find a new Horgan: Should psychedelic drugs be taken seriously as
As a case in point, in regard to this “saving lives” theme, way. But perhaps most important, in terms of “positive treatments?
this benefit does not show up in public health data. The trends,” the narrative that was told to us starting in the Whitaker: I think caution applies here, too. Surely there
“standard mortality rate” for those with serious mental 1980s has collapsed, which is what presents the opportu- are many risks with psychedelic drugs, and if you were to
disorders, compared with the general public, has notably nity for a new paradigm to take hold. do a study of first-episode psychosis today, you would find
increased in the past 40 years. More and more research tells of how the conventional a high percentage of the patients had been using mind-al-
Horgan: Do you see any promising trends in psychiatry? narrative, in all its particulars, has failed to pan out. The tering drugs before their psychotic break—antidepres-
Whitaker: Yes, definitely. diagnoses in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) sants, marijuana, LSD, and so forth. At the same time,
You have the spread of Hearing Voices networks, which have not been validated as discrete illnesses; the genetics we’ve published reviews of papers that have reported pos-
are composed of people who hear voices and offer sup- of mental disorders remain in doubt; MRI scans have not itive results with use of psychedelics. What are the bene-
port for learning to live with voices as opposed to squash- proven to be useful; long-term outcomes are poor; and the fits versus the risks? Can possible benefits be realized
ing them, which is what the drugs are supposed to do. notion that psychiatric drugs fix chemical imbalances has while risks are minimized? It is a question worth explor-
These networks are up and running in the U.S. and in been abandoned. Ronald Pies, the former editor in chief ing but carefully so.
many countries worldwide. of Psychiatric Times, has even sought to distance psychia- Horgan: What about meditation?
You have Open Dialogue approaches, which were pio- try, as an institution, from ever having made such a claim. Whitaker: I know that many people find meditation
neered in northern Finland and proved successful there, Horgan: Do brain implants or other electrostimulation helpful. I also know other people find it difficult—and
being adopted in the United States and many European devices show any therapeutic potential? even threatening—to sit with the silence of their minds.
countries (and beyond). This practice puts much less Whitaker: I don’t have a ready answer for this. We have Mad in America has published reviews of research about

25
meditation, we have had a few bloggers write about it, I am not discounting that there may be biological fac- can-style capitalism doesn’t lend itself to that equation.
and in our resource section on “non-drug therapies,” we tors that cause “mental illness.” While biological markers Third, with our American-style capitalism (think neo-
have summarized research findings regarding its use for that tell of a particular disorder have not been discov- liberalism), it is the individual who is seen as “ill” and
depression. We concluded that the research on this is not ered, we are biological creatures, and we do know, for needs to be fixed. Society gets a free pass. This, too, is a
as robust as one would like. instance, that there are physical illnesses and toxins that barrier to good mental health care, for it prevents us from
However, I think your question leads to this broader can produce psychotic episodes. thinking about what changes we might make to our soci-
thought: People struggling with their minds and emo- However, the progress that is being made at the ety that would be more nurturing for us all. With our
tions may come up with many different approaches they moment is a moving away from the robotic “it’s all about American-style capitalism, we now have a grossly unequal
find helpful. Exercise, diet, meditation, yoga, and so forth brain chemistry” toward a rediscovery of the importance society, with more and more wealth going to the select
all represent efforts to change one’s environment, and of our social lives and our experiences. few and more and more people struggling to pay their
ultimately I think that can be very helpful. But the indi- Horgan: Do we still have anything to learn from Sig- bills. That is a prescription for psychiatric distress. Good
vidual has to find his or her way to whatever environmen- mund Freud? mental health care starts with creating a society that is
tal change that works best for them. Whitaker: I certainly think so. Freud is a reminder that more equal and just.
Horgan: Do you see any progress toward understanding so much of our mind is hidden from us and that what Horgan: How might the COVID-19 pandemic affect care
the causes of mental illness? spills into our consciousness comes from a blend of the of the mentally ill?
Whitaker: Yes, and that progress might be summed up many parts of our mind, our emotional centers and our Whitaker: That is something Mad in America has report-
in this way: researchers are returning to investigations of more primal instincts. You can still see merit in Freud’s ed on. The pandemic, of course, can be particularly threat-
how we are impacted by what has “happened to us.” descriptions of the id, ego and superego as a conceptu- ening to people in mental hospitals or in group homes.
The Adverse Childhood Experiences study provides alization of different parts of the brain. I read Freud The threat is more than just the exposure to the virus
compelling evidence of how traumas in childhood—di- when I was in college, and it was a formative experience that may come in such settings. People who are struggling
vorce, poverty, abuse, bullying, and so forth—exact a long- for me. in this way often feel terribly isolated, alone and fearful of
term toll on physical and mental health. Interview any Horgan: I fear that American-style capitalism doesn’t being with others. COVID-19 measures, with calls for
group of women diagnosed with a serious mental disor- produce good health care, including mental health care. social distancing, can exacerbate that. I think this puts
der, and you’ll regularly find accounts of sexual abuse. What do you think? hospital staff and those who run residential homes into an
Racism exacts a toll. So, too, poverty, oppressive working Whitaker: It’s clear that it doesn’t. extraordinarily difficult position—how can they help ease
conditions, and so forth. You can go on and on, but all of First, we have for-profit health care that is set up to treat the isolation of patients even as they are being expected to
this is a reminder that we humans are designed to respond “disease.” With mental health care, that means there is a enforce a type of social distancing?
to our environment, and it is quite clear that mental dis- profit to be made from seeing people as “diseased” and Horgan: If the next president named you mental health
tress, in large part, arises from difficult environments and treating them for that “illness.” Take a pill! In other words, czar, what would be at the top of your to-do list?
threatening experiences, past and present. American-style capitalism, which works to create markets Whitaker: Well, I am pretty sure that’s not going to
And with a focus on life experiences as a source of “men- for products, provides an incentive to create mental happen, and if it did, I would quickly confess to my being
tal illness,” a related question is now being asked: What do patients, and it has done this to great success over the utterly unqualified for the job. But from my perch at
we all need to be mentally well? Shelter, good food, mean- past 35 years. Mad in America, here is what I would like to see happen
ing in life, someone to love, and so forth—if you look at it Second, without a profit to be made, you don’t have as in our society.
from this perspective, you can see why, when those sup- much investment in psychosocial care that can help a per- As you can see from my answers above, I think the fun-
porting elements begin to disappear, psychiatric difficul- son remake his or her life. There is a societal expense but damental problem is that our society has organized itself
ties appear. little corporate profit in psychosocial care, and Ameri- around a false narrative, which was sold to us as a narra-

26
tive of science. In the early 1980s we began to hear that “If we embraced that literary ty? How do we bring nature back into our lives? How do
psychiatric disorders were discrete brain illnesses, which we create a society that helps provide people with mean-
understanding of what it is
were caused by chemical imbalances in the brain and ing, a sense of community and a sense of civic duty? How
that a new generation of psychiatric drugs fixed those to be human, then a 'mental do we create a society that promotes good physical health
imbalances, like insulin for diabetes. That is a story of an health' policy could be forged and provides access to shelter and medical care?
amazing medical breakthrough: researchers had discov- that would begin with this Furthermore, with this conception in mind, individu-
ered the very chemicals in our brain that cause madness, al therapy would help people change their environments.
depression, anxiety or ADHD, and they had developed
question: How do we create You could encourage walks in nature; recommend volun-
drugs that could put brain chemistry back into a normal environments that are more teer work; provide settings where people could go and
state. Given the complexity of the human brain, if this nurturing for us all?” recuperate, and so forth. Most important, in contrast to
were true, it would arguably be the greatest achievement —Robert Whitaker a “disease-based” paradigm of care, a “wellness-based”
in medical history. paradigm would help people feel hopeful and help them
And we understood it to be true. We came to believe find a way to create a different future for themselves. This
that there was a sharp line between the “normal” brain DSM. That book presents the most impoverished “philos- is an approach, by the way, that can be helpful to people
and the “abnormal” brain, and that it was medically ophy of being” imaginable. Anyone who is too emotional, who have suffered a psychotic episode. Soteria homes
helpful to screen for these illnesses, and that psychiatric or struggles with his or her mind, or just doesn’t like and Open Dialogue are “therapies” that strive to help psy-
drugs were very safe and effective and often needed to being in a boring environment (think ADHD) is a candi- chotic patients in this manner.
be taken for life. date for a diagnosis. We need a narrative that, if truth be Within this “wellness” paradigm of care, there would
But what can be seen clearly today is that this narrative told, can be found in literature. Novels, Shakespeare, the still be a place for use of medications that help people feel
was a marketing story, not a scientific one. It was a story Bible—they all tell of how we humans struggle with our differently, at least for a time: sedatives, tranquilizers,
that psychiatry, as an institution, promoted for guild pur- minds, our emotions and our behaviors. That is the norm; and so forth. And you would still want to fund science
poses, and it was a story that pharmaceutical companies it is the human condition. And yet the characters we see that seeks to better understand the many pathways to
promoted for commercial reasons. Science actually tells a in literature, if they were viewed through the DSM lens, debilitating mood states and to “psychosis”—trauma,
very different story: the biology of psychiatric disorders would regularly qualify for a diagnosis. poor physical health, physical disease, lack of sleep, set-
remains unknown; the disorders in the DSM have not At the same time, literature tells of how humans can backs in life, isolation, loneliness, and, yes, whatever bio-
been validated as discrete illnesses; the drugs do not fix be so resilient and that we change as we age and move logical vulnerabilities that may be present. At the same
chemical imbalances but rather perturb normal neu- through different environments. We need that to be part time, you would want to fund science that seeks to better
rotransmitter functions; and even their short-term effica- of a new narrative, too; our current disease-model narra- understand the pillars of “wellness.”
cy is marginal at best. tive tells of how people are likely going to be chronically Horgan: What’s your utopia?
As could be expected, organizing our thinking around ill. Their brains are defective, and so the therapeutic goal Whitaker: My “utopia” would be a world like the one I
a false narrative has been a societal disaster: a sharp rise is to manage the symptoms of the “disease.” We need a just described, based on a new narrative about mental ill-
in the burden of mental illness in our society; poor long- narrative that replaces that pessimism with hope. ness, rooted in an understanding of how emotional we
term functional outcomes for those who are continuous- If we embraced that literary understanding of what it humans are, of how we struggle with our minds, and of
ly medicated; the pathologizing of childhood; and so on. is to be human, then a “mental health” policy could be how we are built to be responsive to our environments.
What we need now is a new narrative to organize our- forged that would begin with this question: How do we And that really is the mission of Mad in America. We want
selves around, one steeped in history, literature, philoso- create environments that are more nurturing for us all? it to be a forum for creating a new societal narrative for
phy and good science. I think step one is ditching the How do we create schools that build on a child’s curiosi- mental health. M

➦ 27
3-6-1-6-6-7-5-1-3

3-6-1-6-6-7-5-1-3

The
Disturbing
History
of Research
into
Transgender Identity

NOLWEN CIFUENTES GETT Y IMAGES

Research into the determinants of gender identity
may do more harm than good
By Jack Turban

28
 Jack Turban is a fellow in child and adolescent psychiatry
at the Stanford University School of Medicine, where
he researches the mental health of transgender youth.
Follow him on Twitter @jack_turban.

N 1975 PSYCHIATRIST ROBERT STOLLER

I
Psychiatry in Toronto set out to test his hypothesis that
beauty and what was then called “gender identity disor-
of the University of California, Los Angeles, wrote der” were linked. They recruited 17 birth-assigned boys
with the diagnosis and 17 birth-assigned boys without it,
something bizarre in his textbook on sex and gen- all around the age of eight. The researchers then took
der. He asserted that people who were assumed to headshots of the children and showed them to 36 college
students. The students were asked to rate the youngsters’
be boys when they were born but whose gender physical appearance on a scale from one to five with cat-
egories such as “attractive,” “handsome” and “beautiful.”
identity or expression did not match that assump- In the end, the college students found the children with
gender identity disorder to be “prettier” than the cisgen-
tion “often have pretty faces, with fine hair, lovely der boys. The findings seem to suggest Stoller was right:
perhaps, because of their appearance, people treated the
complexions, graceful movements, and—especially— youngsters in the former group more like girls, and con-
big, piercing, liquid eyes.” Based on this observation, he suggested sequently, they became transgender. Although as the
authors mention later in the paper, an equally plausible
a theoretical model in which transgender girls become transgender theory is that these children could have altered their
appearance (long hair, et cetera) in ways that matched
because they are especially cute. Society treats them more like their identity, leading the college students to associate
them with more feminine descriptions such as “pretty.”
girls, he reasoned, and because of this experience, they start to A few years later researchers revived this line of inves-
identify as female. tigation, using the headshots of young birth-assigned
girls with gender identity disorder. A group of college
As a physician-scientist, I’m generally of the opinion know what makes someone transgender so that they can students again rated how “ugly” or “pretty” these chil-
that knowledge leads to progress. But studies focused on be “fixed.” As a result, scientists have relentlessly pursued dren appeared, compared with cisgender girls. The chil-
this particular question—those asking what determines such questions, launching studies that promoted ideas dren with gender identity disorder were rated as less
someone’s gender identity—have led us down some that could hurt transgender children and their families. beautiful, prompting the researchers to suggest that
strange and dangerous paths. Researchers in this area Stoller’s observations motivated many of the psycho- they may have been treated more like boys and thus
appear to be in search of some objective truth, but the sci- logical theories behind what makes people transgender. identified as male. It seems more likely that these chil-
ence is rooted in a subjective assumption: that we need to In 1993 a group of researchers at the Clarke Institute of dren simply cut their hair shorter, so the participants

29
attached more masculine words to them. In the end, the You don’t need to be the parent of a transgender child
study didn’t reveal much about what makes someone
transgender, but it did promote an offensive theory with to imagine that raising your kid in an unaccepting
the potential to diminish the self-esteem of vulnerable community could create substantial conflict.
transgender youth.
Researchers also studied the parents of such children.
Psychiatry has long been enamored with the theory of
mothers harming the development of their children (for play with it. And that doing so makes them sad and im- Similar research into the psychological causes of trans-
example, the refrigerator mother theory posited that pacts their self-esteem. gender identity continues even today. A physician at
autism was caused by a lack of maternal warmth). These In each case, researchers were hyperfocused on find- Brown University recently conducted an anonymous sur-
studies similarly asked if perhaps parents were to “blame” ing a problem with either the kids or their parents. But in vey of respondents recruited via Web sites for parents
for their kids’ gender identity. In one paper, researchers the end, these scientists failed to establish one. They who believe peer pressure and online influences have
assessed whether the mothers of children with gender seemed less interested in a vital reframing: perhaps the made their children transgender. The survey essentially
identity disorder had more symptoms of either depres- issue was not the children’s identity but the way society asked the parents if they thought the Internet made their
sion or a condition called borderline personality disorder. treated them. Instead of supporting these kids, the children trans, and the parents, not surprisingly, given
They found these mothers had more symptoms of both. researchers labeled them unattractive or painted their that they were visiting Web sites about this idea, answered
Sounds convincing, right? Children must become trans- parents as mentally unstable. yes. Conservative media latched onto the study, suggest-
gender because their mothers are mentally ill. These theories on the origins of gender identity have ing that transgender children are really just confused
What the researchers failed to discuss was that the only added to the misguided, and increasingly illegal, kids tricked into being transgender after reading some-
mothers’ symptoms could easily have been caused by the calls for “therapies” designed to make transgender peo- thing on Reddit. The implication is that we need to take
way society treated their children. The subscale of bor- ple cisgender. The logic of so-called gender identity con- these kids away from supportive online LGBTQ commu-
derline personality disorder that was higher among version therapy is that if the environment is the cause, nities so that they can be made cisgender again. Reading
them was “interpersonal conflict.” You don’t need to be then we can simply alter the environment to nip things through this literature, we need to ask ourselves some
the parent of a transgender child to imagine that raising in the bud. Most of the “conversion” manuals have not questions: What is the reason for this research? What
your kid in an unaccepting community could create sub- been released to the public, but in 2002 a psychologist at does it hope to accomplish? The tireless search reveals a
stantial conflict. Columbia University published “Gender Identity Disor- thinly veiled dogma: that being transgender is a patholo-
In another study, researchers noted that parents of der in Young Boys: A Parent and Peer-Based Protocol,” gy to be fixed. This belief not only harms transgender
children with gender identity disorder did not place which included parenting techniques such as “letting go people but also undermines good science.
strong limits on stereotypically gender-atypical behav- of [the] boy by [the] mother,” forcing the child to play What good science shows us is that when we accept
iors such as birth-assigned boys playing with dolls or with same-sex friends, and removing the youngster from transgender people, they thrive. Instead of trying to fig-
birth-assigned girls playing with blocks or transporta- stereotypically gender-atypical activities such as gymnas- ure out what went “wrong,” we should be investing our
tion toys. Perhaps this was the cause of the “problem”? tics or ballet. Notably, a recent study my colleagues and time and energy into advocating for nondiscrimination
If these parents had simply cracked down on this behav- I conducted showed that attempts to change a child’s laws, increasing access to health care and raising trans-
ior early on—ripped the Barbie out of their toddler’s gender identity from transgender to cisgender are asso- gender voices in the media so that society realizes they
hands, say—they may have prevented it, the authors pos- ciated with greater odds of attempting suicide. Several are vital members of our communities. Maybe Stoller was
ited. The more likely explanation is that it’s difficult to U.S. states have banned conversion therapy, but in much right when he noted that those children were exception-
take a doll away from a child who desperately wants to of the U.S., these practices continue. al. It’s time we celebrate that and move on. M

➦ 30
 Eddie Jacobs is based at the University of Oxford, where he is a research fellow
OPINION at the Wellcome Center for Ethics and Humanities, and is undertaking a D.Phil. in
the department of psychiatry on bioethical dimensions of psychedelic-assisted
psychotherapy. He previously supported the Beckley Foundation's psychedelic
science and policy programs. He tweets at @EddieTalksDrugs.

MENTAL HEALTH

What if a Pill
Can Change Your
Politics or
Religious Beliefs?
A new mental health treatment using
the psychedelic compound psilocybin raises
questions about medicine and values

H
ow would you feel about a new therapy for
your chronic pain, which—though far more
effective than any available alternative—might
also change your religious beliefs? Or a treatment for
lymphoma that brings one in three patients into re-
mission, but also made them more likely to vote for “Magic” mushrooms, a source of psilocybin.
your least preferred political party?
These seem like idle hypothetical questions about nonclinical changes not seen elsewhere in medicine. appreciation, plus robust shifts in personality, values
impossible side effects. After all, this is not how med- Although its precise therapeutic mechanisms re- and attitudes to life, even leading some atheists to
icine works. But a new mental health treatment, set main unclear, clinically relevant doses of psilocybin find God. What’s more, these experiences appear to

JOE AMON GETT Y IMAGES

to be licensed next year, poses just this sort of prob- can induce powerful mystical experiences more com- be a feature, rather than a bug, of psilocybin-assisted
lem. Psychotherapy assisted by psilocybin, the psy- monly associated with extended periods of fasting, psychotherapy, with the intensity of the mystical ex-
chedelic compound in “magic mushrooms,” seems to prayer or meditation. Arguably, then, it is unsurprising perience correlating with the extent of clinical benefit.
be remarkably effective in treating a wide range of that it can generate long-lasting changes in patients: These are undoubtedly interesting findings, but
psychopathologies but also causes a raft of unusual studies report increased prosociality and aesthetic should any of it matter? However unusual a treat-

31
 OPINION

ment’s consequences, shouldn’t we prioritize the and although these findings have been replicated were present before treatment. A health care modali-
preferences of an informed, consenting patient? Yes, more recently, a noncausal explanation is readily ty that entrenches preexisting political sentiments is,
I understand that this might change me in strange available. Those with conservative attitudes tend at the least, unlikely to make enemies. The same
ways. But my depression is debilitating. I will roll that to look more disapprovingly on illicit drug use, mak- could not be said of a treatment that shifts patients
dice. Putting aside the matter of how well informed ing them less likely than liberals to try a psychedelic in one direction along the political spectrum.
one could really be about such radical transforma- drug in the first place. To overcome this obstacle, advocates of psilocy-
tions, political realities make things more complicat- Yet emerging evidence suggests the relationship bin-assisted therapy need an inspiring banner that
ed, with the case of psilocybin— currently a Schedule could be causal, with clinically administered psilocy- members of any political tribe could rally around.
1, highly illicit drug—showing vividly how values, poli- bin actively shifting political values, just as it shifts With few things that unite us as powerfully as politics
tics and social narratives can influence the develop- many other nonclinical characteristics. Notably, one can divide us, perhaps the most alluring banner will
ment of biomedical science. study of psilocybin for treatment-resistant depres- be the one thing that unites us all: death. While psilo-
The taboo of the illicit is not an insuperable obsta- sion reported that the treatment decreased authori- cybin is neither a cure for nor a prophylactic against
cle. The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic tarian political views in patients. That clinical trial also death, studies have repeatedly demonstrated that it
Studies (MAPS), an organization that advocates for detected another effect that had previously been could play a profound role in the future of palliative
“careful uses” of psychedelics, has gone an impressive reported in healthy participants: psilocybin use leads care. The existential distress experienced when
way in rehabilitating MDMA (that is ecstasy) into a le- to increases in the personality domain of openness, faced with a life-threatening or terminal illness can
gitimate medicine. MAPS’s masterstroke was to focus itself a predictor of liberal values. steal away what little quality of life remains for the
on demonstrating its potential for treating PTSD. By If psilocybin does change political values, the sig- dying. Such distress responds poorly to our standard
articulating how MDMA-assisted therapy could help nificance of this effect goes deeper than which politi- pharmaceutical approaches, but the powerful mysti-
veterans, support for whom enjoys a rare level of bipar- cians or media outlets will seek to support or impede cal experiences induced by psilocybin consistently
tisan agreement, MAPS has attracted supporters from psilocybin-assisted therapy. A well-established con- transmute demoralization, anxiety and depression
across the political spectrum, receiving positive cover- sensus on the secular democratic state is that it into acceptance, peacefulness and meaning, as pa-
age from MSNBC and Fox News alike. should remain neutral and agnostic on a number of tients prepare to meet their death.
Advocates of psilocybin-assisted therapy tout it matters, allowing a diversity of values, political atti- However else they differ, conservatives and lib-
as the solution to the burgeoning mental health crisis. tudes and religious beliefs among its citizens. Where erals are united in knowing that they, and their loved
But, like MDMA, psilocybin is far from a culturally such states have universal health care systems, is it ones, will eventually die. And for conservatives and
neutral drug, carrying both the shame of Schedule 1 permissible to not only endorse, but fund through liberals alike, psilocybin could help them welcome
status and a checkered social history. It, too, may need taxpayer contributions, a treatment which shifts val- the end with greater acceptance and less fear. Psi-
to build the kind of politically heterogeneous coalition ues in one direction? locybin looks set to become a licensed medicine by
of supporters that MDMA-assisted therapy enjoys. With sample sizes currently small, more research 2022. But how many ultimately benefit from it will
But to generate a breadth of appeal, one chal- is needed to understand whether there truly is a be a matter not just of how well it works but also
lenge stands out: psilocybin seems to make people causal relationship at work and, if so, what its nature the narrative surrounding it when it arrives: Does
more liberal. Scientific reports associating psychedel- might be. Perhaps psilocybin doesn’t so much induce psilocybin underline how we are different or how we
ic use and liberal values stretch back as far as 1971, liberal values but rather consolidates whatever values are the same?

➦ 32
 OPINION Sean B. Carroll is Distinguished University Professor of
Biology at the University of Maryland and vice president for
science education at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
His latest book is A Series of Fortunate Events: Chance the
Making of the Planet Life (Princeton University Press).

POLICY & ETHICS

The Denialist
Playbook
On vaccines, evolution, and more, rejection
of science has followed a familiar pattern

O
nce upon a time, in a land not far away, there
was a horrible virus that instilled terror in ev-
ery town and home. Although most people
who became infected showed no symptoms or re-
covered within a week, in a small fraction of cases
the illness progressed, causing loss of reflexes and
muscle control, paralysis and, sometimes, death.
Children were especially vulnerable, so parents
watched anxiously for any sign of infection, often
keeping them away from swimming pools, movie the-
aters, bowling alleys, anywhere where there were Science denial goes back at least as far as the polio vaccine in the 1950s.
crowds and the dreaded microbe might lurk. Travel
and business were sometimes curtailed between Then, on April 12, 1955, public health officials at mer Supreme Allied Commander told the scientist in
places with outbreaks, and public health authorities the University of Michigan announced that a “safe, a trembling voice, “I should like to say to you that
imposed quarantines on healthy people who may have effective, and potent” vaccine had been found. This when I think of the countless thousands of American
been exposed, in order to halt the spread of the dis- set off a national celebration that recalled the end of parents and grandparents who are hereafter to be
ease. In the first half of the 1950s, with no cure and World War II. Church bells rang, car horns honked, spared the agonizing fears of the annual epidemic

GETTY IMAGES
no vaccine, more than 200,000 Americans were dis- people wept with relief. President Dwight Eisenhow- of poliomyelitis, when I think of all the agony that
abled by the poliovirus. The virus was second only to er invited the vaccine’s inventor, Jonas Salk, to the these people will be spared seeing their loved ones
the atomic bomb as to what Americans feared most. White House. In a Rose Garden ceremony, the for- suffering in bed, I must say to you I have no words in

33
 OPINION

which adequately to express the thanks of myself began to recognize the chiropractors’ pattern of ar- it is very effective—I will break down the chiropractor
and all the people I know—all 164 million Americans, guments was uncannily similar to those I was familiar and creationist versions, which have endured for
to say nothing of all the people in the world that will with from creationists who deny evolutionary sci- many decades in spite of overwhelming evidence,
profit from your discovery.” ence. and point out parallels to the coronavirus rhetoric.
But, alas, not everyone joined the party and ex- And once I perceived those parallels, my excitement
pressed such gratitude. One group in particular did became an epiphany when I realized that the same THE PLAYBOOK
not welcome the vaccine as a breakthrough. Chiro- general pattern of arguments—a denialist play- 1. Doubt the Science
practors actively opposed the vaccination campaign book—has been deployed to reject other scientific The first tactic of denialism is to raise objections to
that followed Salk’s triumph. Many practitioners dis- consensuses from the health effects of tobacco to scientific evidence or interpretations. This may take
missed the role of contagious pathogens and ad- the existence and causes of climate change. The the form of seemingly legitimate specific arguments
hered to the founding principle of chiropractic that same playbook is now being used to deny facts con- against a scientific claim. For example, chiropractors
all disease originated in the spine. Just a few years cerning the COVID-19 pandemic. sought other explanations besides vaccine efficacy
after the introduction of the vaccine, as the number In brief, the six principal plays in the denialist to account for the decline of infectious diseases:
of polio cases was declining rapidly, an article in the playbook are: “The Center for Disease Control statistics make it
Journal of the National Chiropractic Association clear that the majority of diseases that are now rou-
asked, “Has the Test Tube Fight against Polio 1. Doubt the Science tinely vaccinated against were disappearing before
Failed?” It recommended that, rather than take the 2. Question Scientists’ Motives and Integrity either the cause was discovered or the vaccine de-
vaccine, once stricken, “Chiropractic adjustments 3. Magnify Disagreements among Scientists veloped,” stated a 1995 letter to the editor of Dy-
should be given of the entire spine during the first and Cite Gadflies as Authorities namic Chiropractic magazine. In polio’s case, this
4. Exaggerate Potential Harm
three days of polio.” 5. Appeal to Personal Freedom argument does not hold up against the facts that: (a)
Opposition to the polio vaccine and to vaccina- 6. Reject Whatever Would Repudiate the disease was surging in the 1950s; (b) the vac-
tion in general continued in the ranks such that even a Key Philosophy cine was proven effective in a massive double-blind,
four decades later, long after polio had been eradi- placebo-controlled trial; and (c) infections declined
cated from the U.S., as many as one third of chiro- The purpose of the denialism playbook is to precipitously after the introduction of the vaccine.
practors still believed that there was no scientific advance rhetorical arguments that give the appear- Alternatively, some statements are blanket argu-
proof that vaccination prevents any disease, includ- ance of legitimate debate when there is none. My ments against an entire scientific discipline. For ex-
ing polio. That belief and resistance continue to this purpose here is to penetrate that rhetorical fog and ample, Henry Morris, whose 1961 book The Genesis
day, with some chiropractors campaigning against to show that these are the predictable tactics of Flood is credited with reviving the creationism move-
state vaccination mandates. those clinging to an untenable position. If we hope ment, alleged: “Since there is no real scientific evi-
I was shocked when I first learned about chiro- to find any cure for (or vaccine against) science dence that evolution is occurring at present or ever
practors’ opposition to the polio vaccine. The vaccine denialism, scientists, journalists and the public need occurred in the past, it is reasonable to conclude that
is widely viewed as one of medicine’s greatest suc- to be able recognize, understand and anticipate evolution is not a fact of science, as many claim. In
cess stories: Why would anyone have opposed it? these plays. fact, it is not even science at all, but an arbitrary sys-
My shock turned into excitement, however, when I To illustrate how the playbook works—and sadly, tem built upon faith in universal naturalism.”

34
 OPINION

2. Question Scientists’ Motives and Integrity imply a lack of consensus on more fundamental note, “Denialists are usually not deterred by the ex-
As a growing body of consistent evidence can be points, while often propounding the contradictory treme isolation of their theories, but rather see it as
hard to explain away, one fallback is to impugn the views of a few unqualified outliers. An example of the the indication of their intellectual courage against the
source. In the vaccination arena, this often takes the latter is how some chiropractors have seized on the dominant orthodoxy and the accompanying political
form of alleging financial conflicts of interest on the antivaccination stance of one critic, Viera Scheibner. correctness, often comparing themselves to Galileo.”
part of scientists, greed on the part of manufacturers, Her claim that there is no evidence for vaccine effi-
and complicity of government officials. “It appears cacy or safety is cited repeatedly, while overlooking 4. Exaggerate Potential Harm
that the scientific foundation on which these vac- the fact that her training and expertise is in geology, When the evidence contradicts a position, another
cines have been erected is fragile enough that only not medicine. recourse is to try to incite fear. No vaccine or medi-
compulsory laws, expensive public relations efforts, In the evolution arena, differences of interpreta- cine is 100 percent safe, without any risk of side
outrageous propaganda, and expensive advertising tion among scientists are relished by antievolution effects. Chiropractors have long emphasized the po-
must ensue for compliance to be maintained,” wrote voices. For example, the initial discovery of a new tential side effects of vaccines, for example, in a
one author in American Chiropractor. Salk, by the fossil hominid usually elicits some different interpre- statement in Dynamic Chiropractic offering a litant of
way, filed no patent. tations and expressions of uncertainty in the scientif- possible effects: “death, encephalopathy, demyelinat-
In the evolution arena, scientists are often ac- ic community. Creationists often mischaracterize ing diseases, brachial neuritis, Guillain-Barré syn-
cused of being part of a conspiracy to undermine these normal dynamics of scientific discourse as drome, infections generated by vaccine agents, ana-
religion through educational systems. Kenneth Cum- “skepticism” over the significance of such finds so as phylaxis, subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, sei-
ming of the Institute for Creation Research objected to discount them. By overblowing legitimate dis- zure disorder, optic neuritis, arthritis,” and so on. They
to a PBS series on evolution by drawing a parallel to agreements and propounding “alternatives” to evolu- generally fail to acknowledge, however, the serious
the 9/11 attackers: “America is being attacked from tion, denialists often make appeals to “teach the con- consequences of infections that would be prevented
within through its public schools by a militant reli- troversy,” when no such controversy exists in the sci- by vaccination.
gious movement of philosophical naturalists (i.e., entific community. Different interpretations of a fossil But what harm could arise from knowing a bit
atheists) under the guise of secular Darwinism. Both do not negate the discomfiting evidence for the an- about evolution? Well, Hitler, of course! “Of the many
desire to alter the life and thinking of our nation.” tiquity of human ancestors. factors that produced the Nazi Holocaust and World
One noteworthy counter to such assertions is the Antievolution leaders in the U.S. also include a War II,” wrote one critic in the Journal of Creation,
Clergy Letter Project, which has gained the support small number of scholars whose credentials are in “one of the most important was Darwin’s notion that
of more than 15,000 Christian clergy for the teach- other disciplines. For example, the abovementioned evolutionary progress occurs mainly as a result of the
ing of evolution. Henry Morris was an engineer, not a biologist. Phillip elimination of the weak in the struggle for survival.” It
E. Johnson, whose book Darwin on Trial inspired is an oft-repeated argument that has no bearing, of
3. Magnify Disagreements among Scientists many adherents to the intelligent design movement, course, on the veracity of Darwin’s theory.
and Cite Gadflies as Authorities was a law professor with no formal training in biology. Vaccination foes have lobbed similar accusations,
In all scientific arenas, there is honest disagreement A lack of credentials or status within the scientific likening physicians who administer vaccines to Nazi
about the interpretation of evidence. But these dif- community is often seen not as a liability but as a doctors and alleging that vaccines violate the 1947
ferences are deliberately inflated by denialists to virtue. Scientists Pascal Diethelm and Martin McKee Nuremberg Code of medical ethics.

35
 OPINION

5. Appeal to Personal Freedom violations of the establishment clause of the First As these positions are reinforced by family or
If fear is not persuasive, there is another fallback Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. community, they harden into part of one’s identity. “In
position that resonates strongly with Americans: the this way, cultural identity starts to override facts,”
freedom of choice. The American Chiropractic Asso- 6. Reject Whatever Would Repudiate Norwegian climate psychologist Per Espen Stoknes
ciation leaned on this cherished notion when it es- a Key Philosophy has said. “And my identity trumps truth any day.”
tablished its official vaccination policy: Once the courts have spoken and the scientific evi- Psychologists Elliot Aronson and Carol Tavris
“Since the scientific community acknowledges dence grows to be overwhelming, one might think write in the Atlantic: “[W]hen people feel a strong
that the use of vaccines is not without risk, the Amer- that denialists would be out of plays. But there is one connection to a political party, leader, ideology, or
ican Chiropractic Association supports each individu- last line of defense that reveals the nucleus of denial: belief, they are more likely to let that allegiance do
al’s right to freedom of choice in his/her own health It is not that some scientific claim is untrue; it is that their thinking for them and distort or ignore the evi-
care based on an informed awareness of the bene- it is unacceptable in light of some philosophical com- dence that challenges those loyalties.”
fits and possible adverse effects of vaccination. The mitment. The science must be summarily rejected. The denialist playbook is now erupting around the
ACA is supportive of a conscience clause or waiver Chiropractic was founded in the early 20th centu- coronavirus. Although COVID-19 is new, the reac-
in compulsory vaccination laws… providing an elec- ry on the assertion that all disease has its origins in tions to public health measures, scientific claims and
tive course of action regarding vaccination.” misalignments of the spine. “Chiropractors have expert advice are not. Attitudes and behaviors con-
Likewise, the International Chiropractic Associa- found in every disease that is supposed to be conta- cerning the threat posed by the coronavirus (doubt-
tion “questions the wisdom of mass vaccination pro- gious, a cause in the spine,” claimed Bartlett Joshua ing the science), the efficacy of lockdowns and mask
grams” and views compulsory programs as an in- Palmer, the son of chiropractic founder Daniel David wearing (freedoms being eroded) and alternative
fringement of “the individual’s right to freedom of Palmer. Acceptance of germ theory and vaccination treatments (gadflies over experts) are being driven
choice.” would repudiate the founding premise of the profes- as much or more by rhetoric than by evidence.
Similarly, the teaching of evolution in public sion that all disease stems from vertebral misalign- Polls indicate that despite the devastating health
schools is viewed as an assault on the religious free- ments. Therefore, that premise cannot be questioned. and economic impacts of the pandemic, with respect
dom of those who oppose it. Those holding this view With respect to evolution, Henry Morris made it to a potential vaccine we are nowhere near as united
advocate for disclaimers on textbooks (“just a theo- plain: “When science and the Bible differ, science as Americans were in 1955. But as epidemiologist
ry”), the teaching of “alternative” views of the history has obviously misinterpreted its data.” Michael Osterholm noted in June, “Eventually there
of life (Genesis or intelligent design), or the freedom Any credence granted to evolutionary science is won't be any blue states or red states. There won't
to opt out of the evolution curriculum of biology a threat to a worldview based on interpretation of the be any blue cities or red rural areas. It'll all be COVID
classes. Bible; David Cloud, a publisher of Bible study materi- colored.”
Notably, the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected als, argues: “If the Bible does not mean what it says, Now, sadly, there is no denying that.
challenges to compulsory vaccination partly on the there is no way to know what it does mean."
grounds that individual belief cannot subordinate the Historian of science and author Naomi Oreskes
safety of an entire community. And U.S. courts have has coined a term for this stance: “implicatory deni-
repeatedly struck down attempts to subvert the al”—the rejection of scientific findings because we
teaching of evolution as religiously motivated and don’t like their implications.

➦ 36
 ILLUSIONS Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde are professors
of ophthalmology at the State University of New York and the organizers
of the Best Illusion of the Year Contest. They have co-authored Sleights
of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals about Our Everyday
Deceptions and Champions of Illusion: The Science behind Mind-Boggling
Images and Mystifying Brain Puzzles.

unique art style. “I made a table with small

Out of the bits of veneer, and I was hooked,” he recalls.

Woods Cheshire thinks of his creations as wall

sculptures that translate “the latest thinking
Using natural timbers to make to a tactile, primitive medium.” His personal
the impossible tangible connection to the rain forests of the Austra-
lian Outback near Brisbane has been key to
his artistry. Using the local timbers to build

I
n 1954 Nobel Laureate Roger Penrose, his own home, Cheshire found the wood
then a young mathematician, visited an tones delightful, ranging in brightness and
exhibition on Dutch artist M.C. Escher. In- color from pale yellow to brown to deep red.
spired by Escher’s art, Penrose devised the He discovered veneers and realized that he
impossible figure known as the tribar (inde- could arrange the natural timber colors in
pendently from Oscar Reutersvärd, its first the correct sequences and patterns to
creator) and sent his sketch to the artist. achieve myriad geometric illusions.
Escher then embedded Penrose’s design Today Cheshire’s creations start with
into his work Waterfall, further blurring the an original design rendered in software,
line between math and art. which determines the number, size and
Following in Escher’s footsteps, Australian shape of the veneer chips he must make
artist Michael Cheshire routinely turns geome- from each type of wood. He then cuts the
try into the art of the impossible, using one of veneers with a scroll saw, making manual
the earliest and most concrete materials: wood. adjustments to perfect the fit between the
It all started in the early 1970s with a Rotring wood in each pattern. For the last step,
Rapidograph high-precision pen, says Cheshire Cheshire lays out the veneers and glues
at his workshop in Brisbane. Later, in the them on a medium-density fiberboard,

MICHAEL CHESHIRE
1990s, a book on impossible figures provided which he finally backs with more veneers.
“understanding and inspiration.” That discovery, “I do have a lot of setbacks as the wood
along with newly available computer-drawing can splinter easily,” he explains.
Michael Cheshire
software, allowed Cheshire to develop his Cubic Nonsense, Cheshire’s most re-

37
 ILLUSIONS

cent creation, featured here, conjoins six K8P0V4L

different types of native woods into a

locally reasonable, yet globally impossi-
ble figure. The unassuming, palpable
pieces of veneer coalesce into a
three-dimensional, emergent form that
defies human comprehension.
Cheshire’s impossible art exemplifies
how our brains construct global percepts
by sewing together multiple local per-
cepts—in this case, individual veneers. If
the relation between local elements is
viable, our neural circuits will not hesitate
to generate an overall form that is not.
On Facebook, Cheshire’s followers
grew so puzzled that they demanded to
see the back of the artwork. Cheshire
was only happy to comply, revealing that
the ostensibly unsolvable, apparently
hovering multicubed sculpture is made
of a flat board.
“I love that people can look at a still
picture and have strong experiences,
sometimes feeling nauseous. With im-
possible figures not having a focal point
people tend to go round and round,”
he says.

Cubic Nonsense, 2020, by Michael Cheshire.

MICHAEL CHESHIRE
Silver ash (Flindersia schottiana), Queensland
walnut (Endiandra palmerstonii), blush alder
(Sloanea australis), hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii),
Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata), rosewood
(Pterocarpus indicus), 1,400 mm x 1,200 mm.

➦ 38
Editor in Chief: Laura Helmuth LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Managing Editor: Curtis Brainard Scientific American, 1 New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004-
Senior Editor, Collections: Andrea Gawrylewski 1562, 212-451-8200 or editors@sciam.com.
Letters may be edited for length and clarity. We regret that
Chief Features Editor: Seth Fletcher
we cannot answer each one.
Chief News Editor: Dean Visser
Chief Opinion Editor: Michael D. Lemonick HOW TO CONTACT US:
Creative Director: Michael Mrak For Advertising Inquiries: Scientific American, 1 New York Plaza, Suite 4600,
Issue Art Director: Lawrence R. Gendron New York, NY 10004-1562, 212-451-8893, fax: 212-754-1138
Photography Editor: Monica Bradley For Subscription Inquiries: U.S. and Canada: 888-262-5144,
Outside North America: Scientific American, PO Box 5715, Harlan IA
Assistant Photo Editor: Liz Tormes
51593, 515-248-7684, www.ScientificAmerican.com
Photo Researcher: Beatrix Mahd Soltani
Copy Director: Maria-Christina Keller For Permission to Copy or Reuse Material From Scientific American:
Senior Copy Editors: Angelique Rondeau, Aaron Shattuck Permissions Department, Scientific American, 1 New York Plaza, Suite 4600,
Copy Editor: Kevin Singer New York, NY 10004-1562, 212-451-8546,
Managing Production Editor: Richard Hunt www.ScientificAmerican.com/permissions.
Please allow six to eight weeks for processing.
Prepress and Quality Manager: Silvia De Santis
Product Manager: Ian Kelly Copyright © 2020 by Scientific American,
Senior Web Producer: Jessica Ramirez a division of Springer Nature America, Inc. All rights reserved.
Editorial Administrator: Ericka Skirpan
Scientific American is part of Springer Nature, which owns or has
Executive Assistant Supervisor: Maya Harty
commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications
(many of them can be found at www.springernature.com/us).
Acting President: Stephen Pincock
Scientific American maintains a strict policy of editorial
Executive Vice President: Michael Florek independence in reporting developments in science to our readers.
Vice President, Commercial: Andrew Douglas Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims
Senior Commercial Operations Coordinator: Christine Kaelin in published maps and institutional affiliations.

➦ 39