Ego would be an oversimplification. Skepticism is usually mind's main working mode of those that most of the time working in logical things. Most engineers are

Ego would be an oversimplification. Skepticism is usually mind's main working mode of those that most of the time working in logical things. Most engineers are in this group. They whitelist good incoming informations, not blacklist bad informations. Such a person, if they previously understand thee fact-sets A,B,C will be alerted unconsciously when fact-set D is introduced and it coincidentally contradict (not contrary) A. (Both A and B are set of facts) "10Xs don't exist because among 1000 people I work with I haven't encountered 10x" where their own 10x definition itself may be muddled. Such an alert is normal in skeptic mode, and lingering in the skeptic mode for too long might trigger that alert in subconscious, creating a feeling "This new information is false, I know it, but I can't trace how" While it is counter-productive, we can't blame them to be skeptical subconsciously. Because it is human. It is most important to constantly challenge one's subconscious, to put feelings under scrutiny to see if it's valid under current circumstances or not.