Mammogram Madness

Why have so many women gotten so mad about a government task force's recent recommendation that women can wait 10 years longer before getting annual mammograms?

I have heard numerous women through the years complain about the annual procedure because it is exposure to x-rays, uncomfortable, inconvenient, costly, not 100% accurate, and other reasons. (Don't ask why I was involved in those conversations.) You would think that being able to put them off for 10 years would create a sigh of relief. Why not?

Every woman is a unique individual, of course, but Cognitive Dissonance Theory offers a suggestion.

"I am intelligent. I am now told that I have been doing something that is a total waste of time, exposing myself to x-rays. It has cost me time and money. I trusted people who supposedly knew what they were talking about and it now it turns out that they don't. I feel like an idiot."

That is cognitive dissonance: I think I am intelligent but I have been doing something stupid. How do I get rid of that dissonance? Three possible ways: 1) change the behavior, 2) change my cognition about myself, or 3) come up with a new cognition.

Behavior is in the past. Can't change it. I don't like the option of now thinking I am an idiot instead of smart. That leaves door number three - I have a new cognition about the "experts." Either the experts I trusted or the new experts with the new recommendations.

Cognitive dissonance resolved. "I'M not the idiot here, THEY are!"

But wait. What about the evidence from the new research? Social psychology comes to the rescue here, too. Once a schema has been activated it is almost impossible to replace it with a new one. That is psych-speak for, "It is almost impossible to change people's minds when they have held to something for a long time, or held to it strongly."

New evidence can't change our minds. We ignore information that contradicts what we already believe. We pay attention only to what supports our belief. We interpret ambiguous data as supportive.

"I still believe the original research." Why? "The people behind the new research can't be trusted. They are part of the new government health plan that doesn't want to play for things!"

We also tend to give too much importance to our personal experience: "My cousin's neighbor's wife's breast cancer was detected by a mammogram in her 40s, and that saved her life. See, they are wrong!"

Did the government really believe that this would be easy? They should have talked to a social psychologist.

By the way, my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 32. Detected by her doctor. My daughter was diagnosed at 39 when genetic testing revealed that she carries the gene that causes cancer. Her mammograms did not detect it. They are both cancer survivors. Fortunately, my other daughter does not carry the gene.