User:OLYMPHIC/sandbox

Irrational Status & World View Defense (ISWVD) has occurs when anyone chooses to dismiss and ignore the possibility of truth based merely on its implications when such would challenge their own status or world view (and therefore even their own sense of security). Related to this is Assumed Consensus.

When large groups of people choose refuse contemplation of new information, denying themselves the opportunity to explore the merits of any particular claim that is new, substantive, and revolutionary simply because their own status or world view would be challenged by the implications of a fact or any number of facts - we can be sure that we have discovered a syndrome of sorts. This kind of thing has been known to happen throughout the history of the world and the motive of this phenomenon has not been given another more suitable identification.

http://psp.sagepub.com/content/9/4/597.abstract