Mother Jones: In recent years, a persuasive theory of how and why people deny science and reality has emerged. It's called "motivated reasoning"--and was described at length in Mother Jones (by me) back in 2011. Here's the gist: People's emotional investments in their ideas, identities, and worldviews bias their initial reading of evidence, and do so on a level prior to conscious thought. Then, the mind organizes arguments in favor of one's beliefs--or, against attacks on one's beliefs--based on the same emotional...