The Psychology of Belief

[Trolldor]

Nonsense. The trojan was already there.

[Brain Man]

Back to the topic.

There are other reasons which are intractable.

People are lazy, unmotivated for different material. They need something practical they can use your ideas for.

They see themselves as defenders of cherished group information, and so will fight you just to retain group identity and perhaps gain status in the process

The people who are just interested in pure exploration or finding out fundamental truths of how things work for the hell of it, and not interested in what others think of them are few and far between.

[Farsight]

All true, Brain Man. And yet I get a sense that it's much more than that. People seem to want to believe in things, and then cling to those beliefs come hell or high water. They seem absolutely unable to ask themselves why they hold a particular belief, or examine the supporting evidence, or the lack thereof. Sometimes they're motivated by some interest-group or hubristic reason, but it really does seem to me that sometimes they'll fight tooth and nail for no rational reason at all.

[ChildInAZoo]

All true, Brain Man. And yet I get a sense that it's much more than that. People seem to want to believe in things, and then cling to those beliefs come hell or high water. They seem absolutely unable to ask themselves why they hold a particular belief, or examine the supporting evidence, or the lack thereof.

So, for example, when I asked you to look at the supporting evidence for your interpretation of Minkowski and you refused to do this?