Re: Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds.

"... There is a substantial body of psychological research showing that people tend to interpret information with an eye toward reinforcing their preexisting views. If we believe something about the world, we are more likely to passively accept as truth any information that confirms our beliefs, and actively dismiss information that doesn’t. This is known as “motivated reasoning.” Whether or not the consistent information is accurate, we might accept it as fact, as confirmation of our beliefs. This makes us more confident in said beliefs, and even less likely to entertain facts that contradict them...."

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I think there's a lot of truth in this statement.

Belief systems are a curious thing and are based largely, IMO, on what we CHOOSE to believe from what other people have said and written and on our own observations of the world.

We hold certain beliefs that we subconsciously believe are essential to our survival and if we can't break through this, we'll reject a lot of new ideas.

Or we have a vested interest based on certain "facts".

What is fact, that is the question. There are many "facts" that aren't real facts, IMO, just our beliefs as to which are the true facts.

I'd express it more as whether people will accept new discoveries. Example: Isaac Newton discovered the "fact" of gravity, which was already there - gravity was an undiscovered "fact" before Newton studied and named it.

Mira

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