&gt; It&#x27;s like they went out of their way to spread misinformation.<p>I&#x27;m not as on top of modern psychology as I&#x27;d like to be, so I&#x27;d love to see a formal study on the subject, but I&#x27;m pretty confident that most people&#x27;s decisions are guided by the belief (subconscious or otherwise) that the end justifies the means.<p>Of course there are also some really stupid people out there.  One of my earliest memories is of debating my elementary science teacher, who insisted that NASA had a room with perfect vacuum for gravity free training (her position being that air pressure and gravity were the same thing).