By Promod Puri
When incidents happen right before our eyes—or are reported by credible and trustworthy sources—but we still dismiss them as false or nonexistent, we’re not just disagreeing. We may be engaging in what’s called motivated reasoning—the psychological urge to reject facts that contradict our personal, political, or ideological beliefs.
Psychologists have a name for this phenomenon: denialism.
Denialism isn’t merely about doubting something—it’s an active rejection of established facts. And it often comes with a passionate refusal to accept even overwhelming evidence.
Take, for instance, U.S. President Donald Trump, who publicly downplayed the severity of COVID-19 during its critical early stages, calling it a “hoax” even as cases soared globally. His denialism shaped policies, delayed responses, and fueled public confusion, at great human cost.
Or consider India’s upper-middle and wealthy classes during the nationwide lockdown at the peak of the pandemic. Many of them chose to ignore the heartbreaking plight of millions of migrant workers walking hundreds of kilometres back to their villages, often with no food, money, or shelter. For these elites, the suffering of the working class simply didn’t fit into their worldview and was therefore dismissed, ignored, or even justified.
Denialism also lives in history books—or rather, in the attempts to erase them. Holocaust denial continues despite mountains of documentation, testimony, and physical evidence. In the same breath, climate change is branded as a hoax, the theory of evolution is dismissed as fantasy, and some still insist the Earth is flat, in defiance of centuries of science and common sense.
These are not harmless fringe ideas. Denialism thrives where ideological or emotional biases override facts. It creates echo chambers where only convenient truths are welcome and unwelcome realities are blocked out.
In this psychological zone, people selectively cherry-pick data that suits their viewpoint and ignore anything that challenges it. Rational thinking gets hijacked by emotional filters, resulting in convoluted justifications that seem logical but are actually deeply flawed.
Why do people do this? There are several possible explanations:
Religious beliefs may conflict with scientific evidence.
Political loyalties might demand unquestioning support, even in the face of truth.
Social or cultural identity may feel threatened by facts that challenge long-held values.
And sometimes, it’s just easier to deny than to confront the discomfort of being wrong.
Denialism offers psychological comfort, but it’s a dangerous delusion. It blocks rational inquiry, silences open debate, and ultimately polarizes society. Once entrenched, it becomes a rigid mental wall that resists correction, reason, or even compassion.
In the long run, denialism can suffocate the spirit of free and liberal thinking, replacing curiosity with conspiracy and truth with tribalism.
And that’s how societies stall—not from lack of information, but from the willful refusal to face it.
Promod Puri.com 