The Science of Why We Don’t Believe Science

In other words, when we think we’re reasoning, we may instead be rationalizing. Or to use an analogy offered by University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt: We may think we’re being scientists, but we’re actually being lawyers. Our “reasoning” is a means to a predetermined end—winning our “case”—and is shot through with biases. They include “confirmation bias,” in which we give greater heed to evidence and arguments that bolster our beliefs, and “disconfirmation bias,” in which we expend disproportionate energy trying to debunk or refute views and arguments that we find uncongenial.

Short version: you can’t use logic and reason to talk someone out of a position they didn’t arrive at using logic and reason.

I think it points a way for arguments like global warming. I don’t understand why energy independence isn’t being trumpeted more loudly as a goal, with the goal of improving our economic situation and that of national security — importing less oil to keep more money in the US and eliminate foreign dependence.