Belief perseverance

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Belief perseverance (also known as conceptual conservatism) is the maintenance of a belief despite new information that firmly contradicts it. Since rationality involves conceptual flexibility, belief perseverance is consistent with the view that human beings irrationally act at times. Philosopher F.C.S. Schiller holds that belief perseverance "deserves to rank among the fundamental 'laws' of nature". If beliefs are strengthened after others attempt to present evidence debunking them, this is known as a backfire effect. There are psychological mechanisms by which backfire effects could potentially occur, but the evidence on this topic is mixed, and backfire effects are very rare in practice. A 2020 review of the scientific literature on backfire effects found that there have been widespread failures to replicate their existence, even under conditions that theoretically would be favorable to observing them. Due to the lack of reproducibility, as of 2020 most researchers believe that backfire...

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