Why are some people so ignorant, even if they have the facts in front of them?

Question

This is reference to the current policital campaign for the Presidency. Even if some people have it told or presented to them, they still refuse to bend or change their views. Intelligent people make rational decisions based on the evidence presented to them. They don't refuse to hear the other side and not changes to their ideas. You can even see this happening on Yahoo Answers. I am amazed at some people's thought processes or lack thereof.

Answer 1

In my experience everyone always has a rebuttal excuse for any piece of evidence you say.  I quote a statistic, they ask where I got it from, and I tell them www.doj.gov   They then tell me that they don't trust the internet.  Yet, they trust the news.

Most people seem only to resist information or opinions that make them wrong, as someone else said... a great emotional investment, etc... we all make our own reality, as solipsistic a view as that is, I think a lot of people feel that changing a belief changes who they are.  That may be the case, but so be it.  I've always said that ignorance is the unwillingness to change your own opinions and ideas.  Intelligence is the ability to challenge your own set of beliefs, and change them if you need too.

Answer 2

not everyone in the world is perfect, some are good, some are bad!

Answer 3

Reasoning has little to do with intelligence.  Intelligence merely gives a person the ability to reason.  Like horses and water, that doesn't mean they will use it.

a_shrubb is right on.  Most people believe what they want to believe.  They resist accepting that a lot of what they don't like to believe is true, and a lot of what they do like to believe is false.

Answer 4

I see that you are as frustrated as I am that anyone would be so ignorant that they would even consider electing a Democrat to the White House. Let alone either of the extreme left wing wackos currently running. Very Frustrating isn't it?

Answer 5

The greater an emotional investment, the more difficult it is to bend or change views.

The thinking becomes based on emotion, not on facts.

Answer 6

I believe people are ignorant because the fear of being lesser then the person that is challenging them. People are afraid of showing weakness because then people may change their view of them. In actuality when you let go and sometimes accept defeat on an issue you learn ten fold. Then you can learn from the other person's perspective and apply it to your own. Fear  limits peoples growth and potential.

Answer 7

People get invested in their opinions despite thinking they are openminded.  Also, people trust one source of information more than others (relative reliance on truth) and with presented with conflicted interpretations of actions may reach different conclusions.