Actually wrote something on that very topic a couple years ago — a lot of people just believe whatever they’re incentivized to believe, and the facts are not especially relevant to them:
https://www.chrisliss.com/p/the-information-gap?utm_source=publication-search
Very interesting take. Thank you. It’s been enlightening trying to debate and discuss issues over the past few years. Covid etc polarised a lot of society in an extreme manner. My approach was fairly simple. I tried to piece things together whilst reading every research paper I could. I probably read over 2000 and considered data to be of assistance when discussing things. Boy was I wrong! The other thing I find interesting is the perceived need of belief rather than a probablistic mental model which varies according to new information.
Thanks — I know what you mean!
