Noticing the shaky ground

It often seems like people believe what they read unquestioningly. Why else would they share things on social media without making even a cursory effort to check whether they’re true or not?

It occurred to me that most people haven’t had the experience of changing their mind. I’d imagine that if you go through that experience, particularly with a large part of your worldview, it makes you more distrustful of all claims. But perhaps that’s not quite it. It’s apparently quite possible to have a radical about-face on your beliefs without even noticing that it’s happened.

I wonder whether the key is a change in social groups. If you switch from unconditionally trusting all claims made by your in-group to realising that your in-group is now your out-group, perhaps that’s the point where you see the shaky ground that most claims stand on.