Windfarms, Wifi and Self-Fulfilling Myths

Modern life is toxic.

...allegedly. It's not. But a lot of people think so. Driven by media and online coverage of the idea, many believe that things like wifi and cell-phone signals are making them ill. There's no good evidence that such 'electrosmog' causes health problems. From what we know of physics, it's most unlikely that these signals interact with biological systems at all - they're just not the kind of radiation that affects living cells. However, the symptoms are real enough - people are suffering. Psychologists Michael Witthöft and G. James Rubin investigated the effects of an alarmist TV program (this one) on 'wifi induced' symptoms: Are media warnings about the adverse health effects of modern life self-fulfilling? In this study, volunteers were randomized to either see the scary show, or else a neutral program on an unrelated topic, to act as a control condition. Everyone was then made ...