As featured in
The New Yorker THE GUARDIAN The Atlantic BBC NY mag TIME WNYC Scientific American
from Oxford University Press
DENYING TO THE GRAVE
by Dr. Sara Gorman and Dr. Jack Gorman
AMAZON #1 New Release in Clinical Psychology
Oxford University Press
Hardcover
Published: 07 September 2016
328 Pages
6-1/8 x 9-1/4 inches
ISBN: 9780199396603
Sara Gorman, PhD, MPH, is a public health specialist working on global mental health, increasing the quality of evidence in the global health field, and alternative funding models for global health. She has written extensively about global health, HIV/AIDS policy, and women's health, among other topics, for a variety of health and medical journals, including PLoS Medicine, the International Journal of Women's Health, and AIDS Care.
Jack M. Gorman, MD, was Professor and Chair of Psychiatry and Professor of Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and on the faculty of Columbia University's Department of Psychiatry for 25 years. He is CEO and Chief Scientific Office of Franklin Behavioral Health Consultants.
press release
In an era of unprecedented national transformation and global challenge, health and security is an area particularly susceptible to the spread of false information. Zika, terrorism, GMOs, climate change, guns, vaccines, nuclear energy – the list goes on. As perceived threats to personal safety mount, institutions that inform our health and security decisions are not only failing to meet the challenge but are in some cases contributing to it. Highly educated people are making critical, life and death decisions based on an incorrect understanding of the facts.
In DENYING TO THE GRAVE: Why We Ignore the Facts that Will Save Us, Sara and Jack Gorman apply cutting-edge psychology and neuroscience to today’s most politically charged and rancorous health issues. Remaining firmly above the political fray but frankly expressing their assessment of the evidence, this father-daughter scientific team offers a highly actionable program of six social and psychological interventions that will empower Americans to make good health and security decisions and restore our courage to face the future.
Inside DENYING TO THE GRAVE, the authors discuss:
· Risk theory, and why we worry too much about low-risk events (contracting the Ebola virus) but do not worry enough about high-risk events (such as auto accidents).
· How scientific communities can improve public communication and education to prevent hysteria and the proliferation of scientifically incorrect notions like autism’s link to vaccinations.
· The psychology behind why people believe in conspiracy theories and charismatic leaders who purport irrational, unscientific beliefs.
· The ways in which humans are hard-wired on an instinctual level to arrive at one incorrect conclusion and why it’s incredibly difficult to alter that original belief.
“The Gormans don’t just want to catalogue the ways we go wrong; they want to correct for them... Written before the election, they anticipate Kellyanne Conway and the rise of ‘alternative facts.’”
“There are a number of recommendations for science communicators in the book. Scientists must flood the internet with correct information – it’s a search engine battle. ”
“With Jack providing the psychiatric expertise and Sara the public health angle, they make for a great writing team, approaching this contentious topic with a personal flair and embodying the empathy they highlight as vital to overcoming denial.”
Dr. Sara Gorman, BBC News. 3/13
Critica: Think Deeply, Think Well - Based on the ideas in Denying to the Grave, Drs. Sara and Jack Gorman are launching a movement to equip journalists, educators, and citizens with the survival tools needed for a "post-truth" world.
Special Offer: Join the launch tribe before 4/1/2017 and receive a free copy of the first 50 pages of Denying to the Grave.
First reviews
“Superb.... Perfect for fans of the subject and Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow.”
“A new book explores how fear, uncertainty, and group psychology lead people to believe leaders who say false things.”
“...Can help us understand why facts and statistics fall on deaf ears time and time again...The book is thoughtful, exploring the psychology, neurobiology and evolutionary roots that underpin some of our decision-making, which can make adaptive behaviour maladaptive.”
“Gorman and Gorman illustrate how our psychology has influenced our perception of everything from HIV and human papilloma virus to childhood vaccinations, gun violence, nuclear power, antibiotic treatment, and electroconvulsive therapy.”