Magnetic Therapy Research Paper Example

Abstract

Currently there is a question that was prompted in this Critical Thinking course of Magnetic Therapy in treating health conditions as a well known myth of pseudoscience. An evaluation was conducted to examine if the common myth is still as influential as in the past. I surveyed ten peers, family, co-workers, and friends to answer four questions to know if this myth is still relevant in the present day. In this digital age where information is highly accessible , the majority of the people interviewed saw this myth therapy was bunk or uninfluenced by promises of health benefits pseudoscience. In the book Critical Thinking in Psychology: Separating Sense From Nonsense (Ruscio, 2006) the idea that Magnetic Therapy was presented as a widely viewed pseudoscience myth and examined its lack of validity.  In comparison to the survey's results the  relevance in today's western American culture is less in the present day and that this myth is less believable than it may have once had.

Magnet Therapy:Relevance in Present-Day 

In the book Critical Thinking in Psychology: Separating Sense From Nonsense (Ruscio, 2006) the idea that Magnetic Therapy to heal the body and aid in alternative healthcare was presented as a widely viewed pseudoscience myth and examined its lack of validity.  In surveying participants it became clear that this myth seems not to convince anyone of being a valid therapy.  The purpose of this survey was to show how many people knew about the myth and how likely it is in the present day to believe it.

Method

Participants

Ten participants varying from age 19-70 were asked the same four questions in the same order. The breakdown of participants was five women and five men, six participants had completed education level at highschool, one college graduate, and three with non-high school level education. All were within the socioeconomic level of the working middle class made up of: one nurse,  seven service employees, one truck driver, and one retired individual. 

Assessments and Measures

Four questions asked to participants, the same order were as follows:

Have you heard of magnetic therapy for health benefits or treatments? ie copper bracelet or jewelry for health benefits?

Have you, or known of someone, who used or treated any related products/ therapy?

Do you think magnet therapy or products work in their intended health benefits?

If you think that the therapy works in the intended way, how does the mechanism work in the body?

The reason the question included the copper bracelet/jewelry is because upon asking the first participant I realized that these products were that most recognizable for people to identify as the magnetic property myth. When asked about Magnetic therapy alone they seemed to not know what it consisted of. When an added phrase added an example most understood what was being asked in the question.

Results

Firstly, of the participants (five out of ten) answered the first two questions “No” or “I don't know”. Second most common was “ I kind of know” which had three out of ten participants. Thirdly, only two out of ten people answered yes to knowing what the myth of magnetic therapy was or consisted of. The five people that answered “No/ I Don't Know” answered question three and four with “I don't know” and “Maybe”. Once the first two questions are established as not being able to grasp the idea of magnetic therapy the subsequent questions may be irrelevant. Asking someone about a subject they don't know about is like just fishing for guesses. 

Of the three “I kind of know” and two “yes” responses, only one person had tried the copper bracelet, two had known someone had tried bracelet/ magnetic therapy and two had only heard vaguely of the idea. Next, question three and then four answered as follows: the one participant who actually tried it said that “No, it did not work” and didn't know how it was supposed to work. The other respondents that said they knew of someone who had copper jewelry said “No” they did not believe it worked in any health benefits, or how it would work. Lastly, the people who vageuly knew what the mangetic therapy concept was said that seemed unlikely and “dumb” to think it would work. 

Discussion

In the results an interesting fact is that most people who answered to knowing about this myth were in the age range of 45 through 70. The only participant (female age 66)who bought and wore the copper bracelet commented that it was on a late night infomercial in the early to mid-1990’s and impulsively bought it. All five of the participants that answered “No/ I don't know” were between the ages of 19-31.  This is only one anecdotal detail that this myth perhaps had more viability in previous times when people had less likelihood of looking up these claims immediately and watched TV more(younger generations have more options for viewing entertainment). 

Another interesting find was that the males were more likely to feel strongly against this idea or myth. Most of the males (four out five)did not know of anyone who had used any magnetic products, or vaguely knew about the concept. Even the ones that answered “I Don’t Know” to question one and two, more readily to answer the third and four questions with a definitive reaction of “No” they do not think this myth treatment works, or how it could work for health benefits.  Three of five female participants were in the category of knowing someone or herself tried magnetic products/treatments. The females reacted more neutrally or with open interest when asked if they believed magnet therapy or products work in their intended health benefits(question three and four). Even the two women that didn't know what the concept was or knew the concept of magnetic benefits myth reacted more casually or perhaps open to the idea and responded “maybe”and “probably no”.

Conclusion:

At the beginning of the questionnaire the goal was to see if people believed in magnetic therapy, but as surveying underwent it was realized that the subject was not if they believed, but if there is a probability to believe in this myth. In the book Ruscio(2006) presents the myth of magnetic therapy as easily debunked, but still widely known and influential. This book was written in 2006, a few years before the wide use of smartphones with internet access. I think that the younger generation in this survey have not been led to believe this myth because they have always had internet access in their pockets. This leads me to think that the reason that an older person may know or even have tried this pseudoscience is because the information was less available in recent history. If this myth was circulated in the pre-internet times, perhaps that is why it was more pervasive. A person can research many studies that plainly debunk the claims of magnetic property in mere minutes, if not seconds in the present day. I think that the older generation had these same ideas presented to them and having a few more steps in between the information didn't bother or care enough to reach a conclusion. The extra steps of trying to find information on something that has no impact on one’s immediate life seems likely to be a low priority unlikely to be followed up. As technology has progressed so has the interactions of peoples with pseudoscience claims, they are more easily debunked and are less likely to spread and take hold in people's beliefs.

References

Ruscio, J.(2006). Critical Thinking in Psychology: Separating Sense from Nonsense (2nd ed.). Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.