“If the fact that is being debunked is literally part of your identity, like if it’s something that you believe really, really deeply, it’s incredibly hard for you to disbelieve it.

[…]

Let’s just say somebody whose made their whole career on “Climate change doesn’t exist”. All their friends are in the anti-climate change community. They met their wife at an anti-climate change fundraiser. They make their money, they write a new anti-climate change book every year.

Now, climate change is real, right? There’s no evidence I could present that person with that is going make them take the social risk of ending all their relationships, changing their whole life, right? Because if they were to say, “Okay, you know what? Actually, I’m convinced. Climate change is real,” they would lose all their friends, their wife would leave them, they would lose their revenue stream. They can’t possibly come to that conclusion. And so they fight back so super hard.”