Austin Fleming

“People tend to accept information that confirms their existing beliefs and feelings, and reject information that contradicts them. This is called “motivated reasoning,” and it means that providing people with corrective information often does not work and may even strengthen their original beliefs. This also means that when people receive new information, their existing beliefs and feelings may have more influence over whether they believe or reject this information than rational reasoning.”
― Rachel Hilary Brown, Defusing Hate: A Strategic Communication Guide to Counteract Dangerous Speech

“Your mind constantly seeks proof that will confirm your beliefs. If you have negative beliefs, your mind will seek to prove those negative thoughts. If you have positive beliefs, your minds will seek to prove those positive thoughts. Therefore, it is important to be mindful of our beliefs.”
― Akiroq Brost

“People are always clinging to what they want to hear, discarding the evidence that doesn’t fit with their beliefs, giving greater weight to evidence that does.”
― Paula Stokes, The Key to Everything

“People put a lot less effort into picking apart evidence that confirms what they already believe.”
― Peter Watts, Echopraxia