"When new information is inconsistent with our existing beliefs, we experience mental discomfort - which we resolve by rejecting the information, regardless of the evidence. Psychologists call this tendency confirmation bias, which can be explained by another well-established psychological concept, cognitive dissonance."
"Doctors in mid-nineteenth century Vienna, for example, refused to accept strong evidence presented by one of their colleagues that washing hands before delivering babies would reduce maternal deaths from what was called 'childbed fever'. Instead, they got rid of the colleague, Ignaz Semmelweis."
Natalie Wexler, The Knowlegde Gap p75.
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