Someone I know said something ridiculous to me. I sent them a fun, simple article with some data that showed the silliness of their belief, nicely. They responded:

Not enough time to read the article thoroughly (and I know you will think that is the problem why I don’t see things your way, but remember, I am basing my thoughts on real life experiences)

And that, in a nutshell, is why, some days, I feel pretty darn hopeless about the world. Most people not only believe that the relatively few number of events they personally witness outweigh millions of other data points, but they can’t even acknowledge the existence of things that screw with our decision making – like confirmation bias.