As we look at the history of humanity, we often focus on the individuals who made fundamental discoveries and enabled us to advance our knowledge, by challenging directly the system of beliefs they lived in. A remarkable example of that, is represented by the Italian scientist, Galileo Galilei (Pisa 1564 – 1642), who championed the Copernican heliocentric model in opposition to the geocentric and geoheliocentric models officially supported by the Church and most of educated people at the time.

To date, despite living in the twenty-first century, lots of people still distrust scientific truths deemed controversial, the likes of biological evolution and climate change. That tells us once more how, centuries and millennials go by, but human psychology stays the same. Gale Sinatra, professor of Education and Psychology at University of Southern California (USC), in Los Angeles, has shared with us the way emotional and motivational resistance comes into play.