People who believe what they WANT to believe.

[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.