The Anatomy of Deception Conspiracy Theories, Distrust, and Public Health in America

Veteran health writer Sara Gorman compellingly argues that the backbone of medical conspiracy theories is not misinformation but lack of trust--in our hospitals and in our democracy writ large.

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, trust in the healthcare system seems to be at an all-time low. Conspiracy theories are now mainstream, and distrust of government health agencies is common among private citizens. Yet many of those same individuals still profess trust in their doctors. What, then, is driving the general mistrust in medicine, and how can the public's faith be restored?

The Anatomy of Deception investigates the cause behind this seeming uptick in distrust by tracing the unexpected connection between medical mistrust and the move toward far right ideology in the United States. Drawing on personal qualitative research and interviews, health writer and expert Sara Gorman challenges traditional concepts of medical mistrust and argues that the loss of institutional trust in American health care signals a larger breakdown in democracy as a whole. In six short chapters, Gorman advances the idea of medical mistrust not as a byproduct of personal or historical abuses but as a direct result of bias, miscommunication, and lack of access that has slowly eroded trust in the public health system over time. She argues that we can build back trust in medicine through investments in health equity as a first step towards healing the schisms present in modern American society.

Wide-ranging yet incisive, The Anatomy of Deception uncovers the root of medical mistrust in America and how we can regain trust in the systems and values central to our democracy.

Sara Gorman, PhD, MPH, is a public health expert and author based in New York. She has written extensively about misinformation, science denial, and behavioral science. Her work has appeared in TIME, The New Yorker, Science, Scientific American, Psychology Today, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, and NPR, among others. Sara's first book, Denying to the Grave: Why We Ignore the Facts That Will Save Us, was published by Oxford University Press in 2016, and a revised edition was released in 2021. Sara is also CEO of Critica, whose mission is to develop new methods of advancing public acceptance of scientific evidence.