Interesting to come across new knowledge-related terms, for example the Semmelweis reflex or "Semmelweis effect". This is a metaphor for the reflex-like rejection of new knowledge because it contradicts entrenched norms, beliefs or paradigms. It refers to Ignaz Semmelweis, who discovered that child mortality rates could be reduced ten-fold if doctors would wash their hands (we would now say disinfect) with a chlorine solution. His hand-washing suggestions were rejected by his contemporaries. While there is some uncertainty regarding the origin and generally accepted use of the expression, one source defines it as "the automatic rejection of the obvious, without thought, inspection, or experiment" and attributes the expression Semmelweis Reflex to author Robert Anton Wilson.[1] In his book The Game of Life, Timothy Leary provided the following polemical definition of the Semmelweis reflex: "Mob behavior found among primates and larval hominids on undeveloped planets, in which a discovery of important scientific fact is punished".[2]. The expression has found way into philosophy and religious studies as "unmitigated Human skepticism concerning causality".

1. ^ How to improve your information (various tactics), Frederick Mann, 1993, www.mind-trek.com/reports/tl03.htm Mind-TrekCom-Reports-t103] (access 6 June 2008)
2. ^ http://www.besthealth.com.au/news.htm (access 6 May 2008)