Resistance to Evidence

Resistance to Evidence (What)

Resistance to evidence is when actors (individuals or groups) refuse to update their beliefs despite the availability of stronger, more reliable evidence that contradicts their prior conclusions.

Actors
Person or groups. I use this concept because many things that apply to individuals also apply to groups. Also because actors have a role play meaning that they are responsible for the things that they are responsible for.
Misinformation
This refers to information that is misleading or wrong.
Evidence
Evidence is information that can be observed by multiple observers.
Conclusion (Claim)
A conclusion refers to an actor’s decision that is reached after deliberation. Synonyms: answer, recommendation, opinion, findings, and more.

Examples

Ignaz Semmelweis

ChatGPT wrote the following text.

Ignaz Semmelweis: The Doctor Who Fought for Handwashing

In the mid-19th century, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis worked at the Vienna General Hospital, where he was disturbed by a horrifying mystery—why were so many women dying after childbirth? The condition, known as puerperal fever, was claiming the lives of mothers at an alarming rate, particularly in the ward staffed by doctors and medical students. Meanwhile, a separate ward run by midwives had significantly lower death rates.

Semmelweis was determined to find the cause. He meticulously compared the two wards, searching for differences. Then, in 1847, a tragic event provided a breakthrough. A colleague, Dr. Jakob Kolletschka, cut his hand while performing an autopsy and soon died from symptoms identical to puerperal fever.

Semmelweis realized something crucial: doctors and students were coming directly from autopsies to assist in childbirth—without washing their hands. He hypothesized that “cadaverous particles” from the corpses were being transferred to mothers, leading to deadly infections.

In response, he instituted a strict handwashing policy using a chlorinated lime solution before examining patients. The results were staggering: mortality rates in the doctor-run ward plummeted from over 10% to around 1%.

But instead of praise, Semmelweis faced rejection and hostility from his peers. His theory contradicted the prevailing medical beliefs that disease came from imbalances in bodily fluids, not invisible contaminants. Many doctors were insulted by the implication that they themselves were causing deaths. Despite the undeniable success of his handwashing protocol, his ideas were dismissed, and he was eventually forced out of the hospital.

Frustrated and increasingly unhinged by the rejection of his life-saving discovery, Semmelweis grew erratic in his later years. In 1865, he was committed to an asylum, where he was beaten by guards and died of an infected wound—ironically, from the very type of infection he had tried to prevent.

It wasn’t until years later, with the work of Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister, that the germ theory of disease validated Semmelweis’s findings. Today, he is recognized as the “savior of mothers,” a tragic pioneer whose insistence on hand hygiene laid the foundation for modern infection control.

His story serves as a cautionary tale of how resistance to change can cost lives—even when the evidence is clear.

Scientific Discoveries Initially Rejected

• Germ Theory of Disease – Ignaz Semmelweis showed that handwashing reduced infections, but doctors ridiculed him and ignored his findings. Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch later proved germs cause disease, leading to modern hygiene practices.

• Heliocentrism – Copernicus proposed the Sun-centered solar system, but it contradicted religious and scientific beliefs. Galileo provided telescope evidence but was put under house arrest. Later, Kepler and Newton confirmed heliocentrism.

• Continental Drift – Alfred Wegener proposed that continents move but lacked a mechanism, so geologists dismissed him. In the 1960s, seafloor spreading and paleomagnetism provided proof, leading to the acceptance of plate tectonics.

• Meteorites – Scientists believed stones couldn’t fall from the sky, dismissing meteorite reports as superstition. The 1803 L’Aigle meteorite fall and later studies confirmed their extraterrestrial origin.

• Stomach Acid in Digestion – William Beaumont observed digestion through a patient’s stomach wound and showed gastric acid breaks down food. His work was ignored for decades until modern biochemistry confirmed his findings.

• Ulcers and Bacteria – Doctors believed ulcers were caused by stress, but Barry Marshall and Robin Warren discovered H. pylori bacteria as the real cause. Marshall drank the bacteria, got an ulcer, cured it with antibiotics, and later won a Nobel Prize.

• Expanding Universe – Edwin Hubble found galaxies moving away, implying an expanding universe, but Einstein initially resisted this and added a “cosmological constant” to force a static model. Later, the Big Bang Theory was accepted, and Einstein called his modification his “greatest blunder.”

• Quasicrystals – Dan Shechtman discovered a new type of solid with a non-repeating atomic pattern, but scientists mocked him. Eventually, his work was validated, and he won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

• Ice Ages – Scientists once thought misplaced boulders were from great floods, rejecting the idea of past glaciers. Louis Agassiz’s glacial theory was later confirmed by geological evidence.

• Dark Matter and Dark Energy – Vera Rubin found galaxies spinning too fast for their visible mass, suggesting hidden matter, but many dismissed her findings. Dark matter and dark energy are now widely accepted, though their nature remains unknown.

Societal Issues

  1. Is global warming real? What is the cause? What are the consequences? Best actions to take?

  2. Risks and benefits of vaccines.

  3. The integrity of the 2020 US presidential election.

  4. The cause of the US Civil War.

  5. The Holocaust.

  6. What happened on 9/11.

  7. Whether or not Barack Obama was born in

When is Evidence Rejected?

When it challenges an actor (person or group) by suggesting that they might have made a mistake or might be in error, might have a flaw, or they might be doing things that can be improved.

When an actor analyzes the information and based on expertise and reasoning, they conclude that the evidence does not support the conclusion.

When an actor takes the viewpoint of their group without thinking through the issue.

Rationale

Here are some reasons why it is worthwhile to understand evidence rejection.

  1. Consistently reach the best conclusions.

  2. Effectively deal with actors when they engage in evidence rejection. Since most

Skilled Practice (How To)

Self

Others (Who Reach Flawed Conclusions)