It’s amazing how much money and research is going into beauty. It’s no wonder when you look at the statistics and realize that the beauty industry has been booming since its inception in the early 1920’s. Every year more money is spent by consumers trying to stay young and beautiful. Even during times of economic crisis like the Great Depression the beauty industry was the ONE industry that made money…and not only did it make money, but it made more money than ever!
So here we are in a day and age where science has merged with skin care in an attempt at keeping us young and beautiful. And I use the word attempt lightly. Quite frankly I think we live in a time where if we take care of ourselves we may never need to age like our parents. BUT, and this is a big but, with science comes lies and misconceptions. All of which are swallowed whole by consumers because we don’t know how to filter the truth from the lies. We don’t have enough knowledge to understand what we read and hear, but we have enough to get us into trouble.
Nathan Zohner, a student in Eagle Rock Idaho, did a science fair project on the deadly chemical compound dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO) entitled “Dihydrogen Monoxide: The Unrecognized Killer” This chemical has been implicated in the deaths of thousands of Americans every year and it’s in every single facial product we use. The chemical is so caustic that it “accelerates the corrosion and rusting of many metals, …is a major component of acid rain, [and] …has been found in excised tumors of terminal cancer patients.” Symptoms of ingestion include “excessive sweating and urination,” and “for those who have developed a dependency on DHMO, complete withdrawal means certain death.”
Scared?
You’re not alone. After reading Nathan’s report and looking at his research and statistical data on DHMO 86% of Nathan’s sample group voted to ban dihydrogen monoxide because it had caused too many deaths. This same report was used on the first season of Penn & Teller’s Bull Shit with the same results. Most adults who were asked agreed that DHMO should be banned based on the destructive nature of the chemical compound.
The thing is, DHMO is just water.
Nathan’s real science fair project was entitled “How Gullible Are We?” and was about people’s ignorant reaction to totally factual information they didn’t understand. His findings point out that anything can be spun to seem good or bad if you don’t understand all the information. In his report he discusses how any of the students could have asked the teacher what DHMO was, but none did, and in his conclusion he states, “I was appalled that my peers were so easily misled…I don’t feel comfortable with the current level of understanding.” Worse yet, in a Washington Post article about this story, James K. Glassman quotes David Murray, the research director of the non-profit Statistical Assessment Service in Washington as saying, “The likelihood is high that I could replicate [Zohner’s] results with a survey of members of Congress.”
The implications of Nathan’s research were so disturbing to Glassman that he decided to coin the term: Zohnerism – the use of a true fact to lead a scientifically and mathematically ignorant public to a false conclusion.
A little knowledge can hurt you. I am a firm believer in educating my clients, but in today’s market a little knowledge can be harmful just as Nathan Zohner proved. Products are marketed to prey on consumers belief that they know “what’s up” in skin care. They use key words and terms that mislead and virtually lie. For example, you read that vitamin C is good for the skin in Generic Fashion Magazine which recommends Orange4U Cream. You go to the mall and find the Orange4U vitamin C cream. But is that vitamin C cream a good cream? The right cream for you? Does it really even have active vitamin C in it? To know for sure you MUST seek an expert because the marketing of the cream is full of Zohnerisms.
Unless you read the study on vitamin C for yourself and fully understand it, you know close to nothing. Generic Fashion Magazine didn’t tell you that the study said you must have a certain amount of vitamin C in the cream to make a difference, and that it must be delivered to the skin in a certain way, AND that the vitamin C had no effect to the skin unless it was a particular kind of vitamin C combined with a certain amount of another ingredient. Generic Fashoion Magazine also didn’t tell you that Orange4U cream’s makers paid big bucks to get recommended as the vitamin C cream you should buy. So were you lied to? Can you sue? Nope. Technically you weren’t lied to, you were merely misled.
How can it all be lies? You’ve heard about the benefits of Vitamin C every where and the box of Orange4U cream even said its results were “scientifically proven”! Like I said it wasn’t all lies. Just some careful obfuscations. Hype is what it’s all about. Because Orange4U cream company actually owns ten other companies that make vitamin C creams under different labels they are paying for all of them to be marketed, and at the same time hyping vitamin C so that you as a consumer believe vitamin C is the next big thing. As to the scientific proof, well Vitamin C was scientifically proven. Orange4U cream never said that its particular cream was scientifically proven, just that Vitamin C was scientifically proven – which it was. Companies use your small amount of knowledge against you. There is truth in the lies, and that’s where the problem really is. Vitamin C WAS proven in this study to be good for you, but it was a very specific use and type of vitamin C. A use and type NOT used by any of these hyped creams.
So how do you navigate the lies? Well you find someone you trust, like me, to do this for you. Or you spend a lot of time researching products and staying up to date via scientific studies – the ORIGINAL scientific studies and data. Don’t fall prey to Zohnerisms. Make smart choices – even if those mean finding an honest professional to make those choices for you.