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

[Anomalocaris]

If strongly held incorrect beliefs could be change by presentation of facts to the contrary, there would be no creationists, UFO nuts, pyramidologists, etc etc.

Boru

I think that would depend much more on 1) who the believer is, and 2) for what inner mental purpose did he embark upon the acquisition of the belief in the first place, than 1) what the belief is or 2) how strongly the belief is held.

This whole thing in turn hinges upon the convenient, commonly held, but by no means demonstrable assumption that a person really has control over what he conceive to be conscious mental processes.