People who believe what they WANT to believe.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

In other words, they believe what makes them feel good about their identities.

I think that's the main problem with many of the worst Trump supporters. He received an incredible portion of the white evangelical Christian vote, after all. If none of them had voted, Hillary would've won the majority of the white vote too!

Personally, I'm full of doubt if there's an idea that I'd like to believe. Heck, I'd like to live for eternity in some kind of paradise. Is there strong evidence for it? NOPE!

Examples of ideas that many Trump supporters WANT to believe:
1. There's a God and an after-life in Heaven that awaits them (evangelical Christian).
2. White people, like themselves, are inherently superior (white supremacists).
3. Their country of self-identity, the USA, is a great country that doesn't deserve any criticism for past or current misdeeds. Love it or leave it "patriotism" in action.

It's little wonder that they love FOX News and right-wing radio. Those so-called "brainwashing" sources don't need to exert much effort to convince those types of people to follow them. The messages are what they WANT to hear and see anyway.

[dalton99a]

1. They basically believe there are separate drinking fountains in heaven

and the ushers in heaven will always give them the best seats.

The more hardcore types think heaven is whites only, and nonwhites have no souls

[Buckeye_Democrat]

2. Religion is the BIGGEST hook.

That's pretty much the biggest factor due to fear of eternal death. Skin pigmentation and other self-identifying factors play a role too.

Once those ideological WANTS are satisfied, it's easier to introduce other ideas into their dogma -- e.g., denial of climate change.

I've encountered people who say things like, "All ideas are an opinion" or "This is a free country where people can believe what they want to believe." In my experience, they've always been politically conservative. I'm sure there's some Democrats with similar attitudes, but I haven't personally encountered them yet. My sampling results lead me to think it's mostly a conservative attitude.

I'm trying to find a science study that showed conservatives are much more likely to have a "believe what you want" attitude, but I'm having a little difficulty right now. I wish that I'd bookmarked it months ago.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

3. ...

1. There's a God and an after-life in Heaven that awaits them (evangelical Christian). Yes, but Heaven is open to a lot more people than "Evangelical Christians".
2. White people, like themselves, are inherently superior (white supremacists). NO
3. Their country of self-identity, the USA, is a great country that doesn't deserve any criticism for past or current misdeeds. Love it or leave it "patriotism" in action. NO

[Buckeye_Democrat]

4. Interesting article. It argues that...

... conservatives and liberals are equally prone to confirmation bias (despite how I'd read otherwise in the past), but liberals tend to be more open to different ideas. That seems like a contradiction to the idea of equal proneness to confirmation bias to me, but it's still an interesting article.

http://www.firstpersonpolitics.com/confirmation-bias-how-the-left-resists-it-and-the-right-enlists-it/#.Wb1_RcYpD3g
(snip)
Studies show that liberals are just as prone to confirmation bias as conservatives and centrists, socialists and libertarians. Yet it’s hard to avoid noticing some pretty clear differences between the left and the right when it comes to truth, empiricism, and engagement with reality. As Paul Krugman put it, the “stupidity” is asymmetric. But why?

[FLPanhandle]

5. Humans across the political and religious spectrum believe what they want to believe

Hypocrisy and confirmation bias exists here in abundance too.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

6. Yeah, I've seen it here.

I'd probably belong to the "Science Party" if it existed.