>>570>My question is: When people watch/read any source or material that challenges their beliefs, why the automatic response is to label the whole thing as a conspiracy or some made up crazy shit by a lunatic?Just a theory based on various bits of information about neurology:
First of all, as it's your brains highest goal to survive, the limbic brain areal will nearly always make you feel discomfort whenever something is about to change your status quo (which allowed you to survive perfectly fine up to this point), making it also a challenge to induce even good changes within a persons belief-system.
Plus, there is also the concept of consistency. If a person is committed to his believes, even more so if he committed to them in public, he or she is much more unlikely to change them, even in the face of new information. Someone recommended Cialdini in this thread, I think he wrote something on this subject in his book, good read.
Plus, changing your inner network is not fun at all, it's hard work. As far as I know and assuming my information is correct, it takes about 1,5 calories to think a new thought, or integrate it into your neurological web so to say. It takes only 0,1 to think or 'travel through' an already built synapse.
So I my guess (note the word guess) is that the feeling of discomfort, inner need for consistency and hardship of an inner change combine to build the barrier which is so hard to overcome for most people.
That's why we have people like OP, to build the stairs and give us a smooth nudge I guess.
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