In Pursuit of Immunity

According to the recently released data by the All India Organization of Chemists & Druggists (AIOCD), in the June 2020-May 2021 period Indians bought immunity-boosting vitamin drugs and mineral supplements worth INR 14,587 crore, about 20% more than in the preceding year.

In March 2020, WHO characterized Covid-19 as a pandemic, by April 2020, when Google published its report: What is India searching for? Insights for brands, the searches for the word Immunity had gone up by 500%, Vitamin C by 150%, Giloy by 380%, and Kadha by 90%.

It doesn’t stop there. For the first time ever in India, the sales of multivitamins overtook the sales of diabetes drugs. In Q1 2020, sales of Dabur’s Chyavanprash were up by 694%, those of Honitus by 80%, and of honey by 60%.

To the ‘Promise of Immunity’ made by India’s immune-boosting packaged products industry, we expressed our gratitude with hefty contributions to the bottom lines that ensured the businesses remain immune to global shutdown. 

This Thing Called Immunity

What really is this Immunity that humans seem to be pretty in control of? Let me try simplifying it for the sake of this piece you’re reading.

Our immune system is far complex than we can think of it to be. It can be broken down as: the Innate Immunity (general) and the Adaptive Immunity (specialized). These two systems work closely together and take on different tasks.

• Innate Immunity also known as genetic or natural immunity, is the immunity that one is born with. This immunity relates to our white blood cells and is always the first line of defence whenever we need protection from any non-self pathogenic invasion. Non-specific in nature, innate immunity’s response is to immediately prevent the spread and movement of foreign pathogens throughout the body.
• Adaptive Immunity, on the other hand, is our second line of defence against non-self pathogens. Also referred to as acquired immunity or specific immunity, this immune response is specific to the pathogens presented. Adaptive immunity is marked by its clonal expansion of lymphocytes (i.e.: T cells, B cells) and antibodies. The production and mechanism of these cells are controlled by proteins called cytokines, and cannot be controlled, regulated, or improved by the consumption of any foods.

So, if innate immunity is genetic or natural and adaptive immunity cannot be controlled, then what really are we boosting by consuming Immunity Boosters? To this end, we have ample scientific evidence that stimulating or activating any of the components of the immune system in the absence of an infection is nothing but summoning inflammation. Stimulated immune systems result in the release of large amounts of pro-inflammatory cytokines causing a cytokine storm.

To cut the long story short, immunity boosters do more harm than good. Then what is all the hype about and why are we succumbing to it?

The Fast & Automatic System 1 versus the Slow & Rational System 2

If you have read Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow, you know exactly what I am pointing at. But if you haven’t, I insist you do so at the first opportunity you get to lay your hands on that book. The Nobel Prize winner in Economics in his seminal work explains the two systems – System 1 and System 2 – that drive the way we think.

System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional, whereas System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Kahneman goes to say that a general “law of least effort” applies to physical as well as cognitive exertion. The law asserts that if there are several ways of achieving the same goal, people will eventually gravitate to the least demanding course of action.

As humans, we consider ourselves to be rational creatures and therefore, assume we spend most of our time in System 2. The reality however is different. We spend almost all of our time in System 1.

System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control. We are continuously creating impressions, intuitions, and judgements based on our daily activities. When faced with a decision, we are drawn to our System 1 thoughts. System 2 thinking occurs only when we are confronted with an unfamiliar situation. In short, System 2 is activated when a detected event violates the model of the world that System 1 maintains. 

Familiarity breeds Liking

“A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth. Authoritarian institutions and marketers have always known this fact.” ~Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow

To illustrate how our minds think, Kahneman leans on multiple studies, but one that he begins with is the best-known study demonstrating inattentional blindness, the Invisible Gorilla Test. The gorilla study highlights two important facts about our minds: we can be blind to the obvious, and we are also blind to our blindness. And if there’s one community who has enough exploited this weakness of humanity at large, then it is that of the marketers.

We’ve all heard of the proverb Familiarity breeds Contempt. But that’s not true in marketing. In the marketing parlance, this proverbial wisdom translates to Familiarity breeds Liking. It is the mere exposure effect that does not depend on the conscious experience of familiarity.

A reliable and easy way to make people believe in falsehoods, or anything for that matter, is to repeat and bombard messaging till it gains a foothold in System 1. When the time comes to make a judgement, the impressions of familiarity are produced by System 1, and System 2 relies on those impressions for a true/false judgment.

Easy, ain't it?

Filmstars ki Nahi, Science ki Suno

Early this year, the German brand Sebamed took on the FMCG giant Hindustan Unilever with an ad campaign – Filmstars ki Nahi, Science ki Suno – that brought up the pH debate for bathing soaps. The attack was purely on the grounds of science pointing out that HUL’s soaps have higher pH levels than that of the Sebamed soap and skincare soaps with a pH level higher than 5.5 are only as good as detergents.

Whether this campaign drove the sales of Sebamed or of any of the HUL’s soap brands is outside the purview of our discussion, but it’s ironic that we as consumers are witnessing ad campaigns driven by science in anything but in the field of health.

There’s an age-old proverb that goes If nothing is going well, call your grandmother. If there’s anything my grandmother always advised (and I am sure yours did too) it was a nutritionally-balanced diverse diet, 8 hours of shuteye each night, and regular exercises, which she called it as the trinity of good health, eventually leading to a healthy immune system.

I wonder if she would be turning in her grave every time we mistake her beliefs in immunity as immunity to thinking itself.

P.S.: Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not substitute a physician's consultation.

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