Finally, the illusions of validity and skill are supported by a powerful professional culture. We know that people can maintain an unshakable faith i… - Daniel Kahneman

We know that people can maintain an unshakable faith in any proposition, however absurd, when they are sustained by a community of like-minded believers

Anything that makes it easier for the associative machine to run smoothly will also bias beliefs. A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth. Authoritarian institutions and marketers have always known this fact.

A general “law of least effort” applies to cognitive as well as physical
exertion. The law asserts that if there are several ways of achieving the
same goal, people will eventually gravitate to the least demanding course
of action. In the economy of action, effort is a cost, and the acquisition of
skill is driven by the balance of benefits and costs. Laziness is built deep into our nature.

We are far too willing to reject the belief that much of what we see in life is random.