Why do some people have such a strong resistance to admitting error (other than pride, which is sometimes disguised as self-esteem or ego)? At present, a train of reasoning has no value as a means of finding truth here unless we admit the fact that conflict avoidance techniques are biological in nature, which is to say – we all try to resolve the discomfort of conflict. Now if we are agreed about that, then I go on to my next point, which is that we plainly dislike cognitive dissonance (a state of mind caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously). But if f the true answer for why you believe something has a traceable cause back to a simple desire to avoid inconsistent appearances, does this not bring you back full circle to pride? There seems to be only one possible answer here, but this as it stands is clearly untrue in all environments. Beliefs may have a cause, but to be caused is not to be proved. To be confident is not necessarily to be accurate. You can be confidently wrong. As I see it, one biologically adaptive way we resolve cognitive dissonance is through rationalizing one of the beliefs that we want to hold, which is of course nothing short of inventing reasons to believe that which we know is at least in some way false. We as people are very good at inventing reasons to justify our beliefs.