Ignore the evidence

I am just a poor boy
Though my story's seldom told
I have squandered my resistance
For a pocket full of mumbles such are promises
All lies and jests
Still a man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest
                                      The boxer (Simon & Garfunkel)

This is a famous song by Simon & Garfunkel (1969) which tells the first person story of a pariah. This first verse summarizes what has been his life: a series of deceptions to exhaustion, but also acknowledges his guilt is to understand just what suited him.
In the paper "Sometimes a nudge from the government is just not enough" (07/06/12) Lord Krebs asked even campaigns promoting environmental awareness and good habits like quitting smoking and not exceed the weight advisable, why not obtain the expected results. The writer talked about inducing behaviors to overcome inertia, but others simply would apply coercive measures like bans, fines and social marginalization. These seconds already being carried out with relative effectiveness, only the occasional or imitation followers stop the activity, but the true practitioners have continued with their behavior. Just look at the increase in the obese are our towns, and the legion of smokers on terraces and gates of office buildings that armed with his cigarette withstand cold, heat, wind and rain. Inertia is responsible for many things but it loses energy when there is resistance, social rejection and draconian conditions to continue their activity should stop it, but to what price should put the fuel to stop that cars fill the streets every weekend despite the economic crisis.

 

There must be other underlying reasons for continuing with these stubborn attitudes. In my opinion the reason is very simple, and is summarized in the last two sentences of the verse: Still a man hears what he wants to hear /and disregards the rest. We don’t understand the message because we only understand of message the part that we need, in the sense that it fits in the world that we have for true.
Everybody from our learning and experience, assemble what we see as world that is the stage where our life goes. Each person has own, where there is only reality or interpretation of this, but also hopes, beliefs, fears and memories that enrich, in other words, we live in a metareality. The metareality isn’t living in a fantasy world that would be a psychopath. Everyone has his metareality and it defines the relationship between the person and the world. So all that happens is fitting in own metareality so any message that comes to us also must pass this filter.
Let me give an example. The message: Smoking causes a major part of its practitioners some kind of cancer, and when there is a genetic predisposition odds increase significantly; but I believe that smoking is a good thing in my life so I understand the phrase: who has a genetic predisposition and smoking could  cause to cancer but because nobody in the family has had cancer I can continue smoking happily. The reasoning is total nonsense, the two statements even if they share many of the same words do not mean the same, and on the other hand a warning of danger became to confirm safety. Every week died people on the roads as a result of speeding or alcohol, but most drivers are sure that they have the metabolism of Superman or his reflexes allowing them to drink or to drive at 200 because "they have control ", the messages not drink or not run are designed to other people not so much prepared as they that know "its limits".
This happens to everyone. For this reason you should go through life and cope with the most open-minded. However our knowledge will influence more or less understanding of things, and we need to consider. They often accuse the messenger from our mistakes when we have understood only part of the message or we misrepresented. As in the game of nonsense that a group of players will spend a little message in the ear of next player, you can see that survives of the initial message at the end.
A saying says that you can fool some people for some time, very little time to many, but you all the life. Having extensive knowledge helps to understand the message, first because your metarealitay is much wider allows context well more messages, and second you have certainly seen other situations where the message was in contradiction with your metarealitay. In the second case, having knowledge gives the security to check that you know what you get. But when your skills are scarce we begin to have a problem. Here we must distinguish between three archetypes: the ignorant, the cretin and inane*. The ignorant it may be due to laziness or in most cases by social, luckily these are recoverable with time, the lazy just learning by pressure and others were expanding the world if conditions permit; really good educational policy. The cretins are something else, for some reason (maybe their grandmother insists on smart that they were), they have come to believe that an intelligence higher than the rest (or something similar), they were born taught and they know all, confront this message as a confirmation of their world, and if it doesn’t agree they modify the message until it agrees. But the most damaging are the inane. Also inane know everything, and if doesn’t know something, this is not important, unlike the cretins who misconstrued the message, they despise it because it's irrelevant, and in fact they are the ignorant lazy degradation, she/he has already learned they had to learn and she/he don't need to make the effort. In summary it easy to self-fool and it requires effort to avoid it that anyone isn’t willing or she/he want to do.
Although we must add another condition that adultery the message is the contrary message. This comes up when you talk to someone with a similar metarealitaty your least the look I wanted to influence the message. So among all those who disagree are self-reinforcing in their convictions. Here I am not referring to the obligatory critical that one has to have in front message, we don’t forget that it also has its origin in one or more metarealitaties, but I am referring the ability to find unusual arguments or to base on data totally false.
As little conclusion we can take verse that helped me with illustration. It is a well-known song translated into many languages and envisioned by other singers. This means that many people have heard and understood the first verse. In most certainly have settled on that people hear what they want to hear. But they are not worried in the least, because this happens to this poor unfortunate not them.

 

*Forrest Gump said it was silly that makes silly things in this regard somebody with intellect normal or higher may be a silly, which daily experience confirms, the same way people with less intellect usually behave in a more intelligent because knowing their lack and they think the things rather well; persons include in all three categories of the asterisk have coefficients normal or higher.