When new knowledge utterly contradicts the existing body of knowledge and cannot be understood, or the effort of integrating it or replacing the existing body of knowledge is too much, people may simply reject it.
We see this frequently in areas such as religious practices, political beliefs, and social norms. Through the centuries various “prophets” of both cults and traditional religious orders have prophesied the imminent destruction of the world. Despite evidence to contrary, people invest in these beliefs and, in many cases, they cannot be shaken by facts. Even when the prophesy fails to occur as scheduled, the believers continue to believe and invent complex rationalization logic to explain why their beliefs are correct.
Example: Proponents of the Flat Earth theory—that the Earth is a flat disk rather than an oblate spheroid—construct enormously elaborate “scientific” structures to help them support and maintain their chosen intellectual knowledge structures. Despite immense quantities of coherent scientific data, individual experience and testimony, and extensive video and photographic evidence, they freely dispense with whatever information does not support their viewpoint [1].
SOME QUOTES [2]:
Donald Hatcher and Anne Spencer: “Critical thinking is thinking that attempts to arrive at a judgment only after honestly evaluating alternatives…” (my emphasis)
Michael Lively (Southern Methodist University): “…that this topic presents a problem for certain students derives from a preexisting schema or cognitive model that the students have formulated during earlier lessons … …a cognitive model that conflicts with the 'new' idea…” (my emphasis)
FOOTNOTES
[1] This is not to deride people who believe in this theory—in general, people are free to believe whatever they want. Some belief systems are retained more as a form of tribal identity than as a form of essential revealed truth. But the body of evidence and knowledge supporting the globe is enormously greater and more supportable than that of the disk model. To genuinely adhere to the belief in a disk model requires the wholesale rejection of this evidence.
[2] From Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines Fall 2015 Vol XXX No.3 p.62 ISSN: 1093-1082