Study:Strongly held incorrect beliefs often cannot be changed by disputing facts

[Aractus]

I would like to understand your reasoning for this statement. Is it simply because of your belief? Religion's historical persistence and place in society don't make its claims any less untrue than the other beliefs tested?

The phenomenon is good and bad. I'll give you an example - for most people if they look at say 12 different choice of margarine in the supermarket they will choose one and once they've done that they'll instinctively believe their choice to be "right" ie they will find reasons to defend their choice. Same thing with choice of meat or choice of eggs, oils, etc.

Okay - now I've untrained myself to believe I'm always right. I did this a long time ago. I did it because the thought of such autonomy was frightening. I don't have OCD or anything of the sort, but those decisions are now much harder for me than for most people. I've stood in isles before for 5 minutes at a time staring at my choice trying to make up my mind, because it's not "obvious" to me that my first choice is the "right choice" as is instinctively obvious to most people (even though they could have made a different choice and believed it to be right).

So it has its benefits in making decisions easier. But it also has the effect of barricading your decisions behind a wall of "I'm right because I made the decision" and once that has happened you'll look only for evidence that supports your position whilst denying anything that challenges it.

We make about 5,000 decisions a day. We can't spend 5 minutes deciding on each one, or they wouldn't get made. That's why we build things like habits to make those decisions more streamlined.