[escepticos] Modelo matemático sobre propagación de tratamientos de medicina alternativa

[Cibernesto]

Me ha parecido curioso.
Aquí se puede ver el trabajo: 
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0005192#abstract0
A continuación pego el abstract:

Complementary medicines, traditional remedies and home cures for medical 
ailments are used extensively world-wide, representing more than US$60 
billion sales in the global market. With serious doubts about the 
efficacy and safety of many treatments, the industry remains steeped in 
controversy. Little is known about factors affecting the prevalence of 
efficacious and non-efficacious self-medicative treatments. Here we 
develop mathematical models which reveal that the most efficacious 
treatments are not necessarily those most likely to spread. Indeed, 
purely superstitious remedies, or even maladaptive practices, spread 
more readily than efficacious treatments under specified circumstances. 
Low-efficacy practices sometimes spread because their very 
ineffectiveness results in longer, more salient demonstration and a 
larger number of converts, which more than compensates for greater rates 
of abandonment. These models also illuminate a broader range of 
phenomena, including the spread of innovations, medical treatment of 
animals, foraging behaviour, and self-medication in non-human primates.