Quote:Cognitive Dissonance - This is why people get so upset when you challenge what they believe or hold as truth.

 

I am sure those in doubt would have heard of Leon Festinger. After all, he was a leading psychologist in the early 1900's. Anyone who took a high school or college psychology class has surely heard of him right?

 

Anyway, it's the mental conflict that occurs when beliefs or assumptions are challenged by new information. No matter what, they will rationalize what they know to be the true and only fact, and no other new facts or info can change that belief. They will try to preserve their current understanding of the world by either rejecting, explaining away, or avoiding any new info.

 

My memory was jogged by this when I was talking with a hs psych teacher I work with about a specific thing occuring. I did a little more digging about this and found the above.