Passionately Wrong
Reading through the comments lately a correlation stands out: those who are dead wrong are on average more passionate than those who are more nearly right. This correlation seems an obvious explanation for the usual boring academic demeanor; those of us who want to be thought right must try not to seem too passionate. But though I accept this sad fate for now, my curiosity (passionately?) cries out: why?! Why are the wrong more passionate?
Are You Passionate When You Are Wrong?
Robin Hanson, at Overcoming Bias, made this observation several days ago. "Reading through the comments lately a correlation stands out: those who are dead wrong...
A people's position is a spiderweb of beliefs - you need to break each of the strands before it moves very far even if it is built in a terrible location. if that belief is held in place by many strands it will be slow to move. So when the wind of logic blows past it will blow the weakest ones downwind but the strongest will remain. Over time all the little spiders who make weak webs all accumulate down wind and rebuild their webs there (with the local spiders). Up-wind there are only spiders with strong webs with many connections.
hope I didn't overplay the metaphore. Anyway basicaly i think some people are jsut prone to building certain (if not all subjects) deep into the heart of their belief structure, while others are prone to be 'open minded' or 'flip floppers' if you like.