Why do people persist in beliefs that are wrong – and even harmful? | Richard P Grant

People often maintain beliefs that can't be explained away by ignorance. In the face of this, how do we effectively communicate science?

Richard Feynman said that the easiest person to fool is yourself. Fooling yourself is a particular danger for the well-educated, who see themselves as smart; and who in all likelihood tend to hang around with like-minded people of similar background and experience. Because you're smart, your ideas are necessarily good.

The danger here is that a self-reinforcing herd mentality arises. Ideas become customs, and customs become Truth. Any deviation from the Truth is to be quashed, and outsiders are mocked and derided.