I’ve heard that for people to be teachable they have to feel safe. Feeling afraid makes your body enter a defensive stance and this includes not only resisting harm but also resisting knowledge transfer. I assume that’s why people who struggle with a subject at school sometimes have a difficult time catching up even when with tutoring.

It would then be similar to how you can’t convince a stranger who believes in wrong things - controversial topics cause stressful situations and when you’re seen as an enemy their brain goes into a defensive mode, distrusting you and not letting new information in. You first have to build up a certain level of trust and mutual understanding.

Maybe that’s nothing new. Either way, this picture reminded me of that.

This reminds me of “Fun to imagine with Richard Feynman” (Youtube link)

In it he said that he thinks people who find science dull lose out on a lot of pleasure. Then he goes on to explain some of the physics behind things we encounter everyday.