Across diverse yet largely unconnected reports, including language-focused research studies, psychotherapeutic case studies, literary biographies, and journalism, evidence exists of people distancing themselves from previously acquired linguistic resources, such as accents, dialects, and even named languages. In this article, I begin by discussing…

Science denial has a long history of causing harm in contemporary society when ignored. Recent discussions of science denial suggest that correcting people's false beliefs rarely has an impact on eliminating the adherence to false beliefs and assumptions, which is called the backfire effect. This paper brings the backfire effect within the context…

Students in teacher education programs are often faced with perceived threats to their epistemological heritages. According to System Justification Theory, when faced with these perceived threats, individuals may become more defensive, epistemically resistant, and cognitively rigid. More specifically, due to a palliative psychological need,…