Rachel Hilary Brown

“People tend to accept information that confirms their existing beliefs and feelings, and reject information that contradicts them. This is called “motivated reasoning,” and it means that providing people with corrective information often does not work and may even strengthen their original beliefs. This also means that when people receive new information, their existing beliefs and feelings may have more influence over whether they believe or reject this information than rational reasoning.”

“Confronting information that directly challenges existing beliefs can be psychologically threatening to people, especially if the information challenges their sense of identity.”