I just learned about a concept called cognitive dissonance. Basically when what you believe goes against what evidence is telling you, you experience cognitive dissonance. It's uncomfortable, and in order to lessen the discomfort we have to change our belief or not trust the evidence.
In a TED talk I just saw (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqONzcNbzh8), the speaker gives two great examples. The first is being a pilot, and learning how to fly with only instruments without the visual of the world around you. Your body is telling you one thing, and the instruments are telling you another. You believe your body, even though it's wrong. He also gives the example of a friend of his that works at a hospital that sees the effects of smoking on people, yet continues to smoke, claiming it keeps her thin, and that it's better health-wise to smoke than to be obese.
Without understanding that this happens, things make less sense. This basically explains certain types of irrationality. I couldn't understand how people could not accept mounds of evidence put right in front of their face. We have a need to justify what we do and say, and if that requires ignoring evidence that we're wrong, that tends to be preferred over the alternative.
I know I don't like being wrong. But by accepting that I'm wrong when I've been provided with evidence, I can be right in the future. Being wrong about something often means you have to be wrong about things relating to it, otherwise the puzzle of complex ideas won't fit together.
We should be skeptical when people try to persuade us. There are many tricks people use, and too often, we're lied to for somebody else's personal gain. But when it turns out that they are right, we should be willing to accept that what we previously thought was actually incorrect. We can go forward with a better understanding of what is happening around us if we don't deny what evidence shows us.
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