The Anatomy of Deception

Veteran health writer Sara Gorman unveils the root of medical mistrust in America and offers actions for rebuilding faith in medicine as a way for healing the schisms of modern-day American 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.

- Introduction
- Chapter 1: "Above All, I Trust my Doctor": Trust, Distrust, and Medical Decision-Making
- Chapter 2: "Othered" Bodies: Medical Mistrust in Black and Latinx Communities
- Chapter 3: The Unbearable Mundaneness of Conspiracy Theories
- Chapter 4: Heartbreak and Outrage: The Response to COVID-19
- Chapter 5: Trust and Well-Being at the Center of Democracy
- Chapter 6: Symptoms of Mistrust and What to Do about Them
- Conclusion: Where Do We Go From Here?