I feel like another important element is that, while in some cases the premise may be objectively "hard to grasp", in most cases there is another factor in play and that is the projection of one's capacity of grasping concepts onto others. So for example, in an extreme case where a murder suspect's parent is questioned, the parent could possibly say "my son could never..." - with an implication of: if I can't conceive it happening, then no one else could either. Maybe avoiding this fallacy is difficult because to avoid it is to accept that we are flawed as people and have internal biases, and that our internal believes about what is and isn't conceivable is as unreliable as the next person's.
Or discussions that involve or start with some version of "How could you possibly believe ..." It beggars belief, we tell ourselves, that someone would hold a view that's clearly flawed. In the case of that parent, they must feel like they know their son better than anyone else. So it comes as a shock to them when they're told to accept a new reality that ruptures that belief. Something else must be afoot. I agree that it can be a hard one to avoid on account of what it demands of us in terms of self-awareness.
I feel like another important element is that, while in some cases the premise may be objectively "hard to grasp", in most cases there is another factor in play and that is the projection of one's capacity of grasping concepts onto others. So for example, in an extreme case where a murder suspect's parent is questioned, the parent could possibly say "my son could never..." - with an implication of: if I can't conceive it happening, then no one else could either. Maybe avoiding this fallacy is difficult because to avoid it is to accept that we are flawed as people and have internal biases, and that our internal believes about what is and isn't conceivable is as unreliable as the next person's.
Or discussions that involve or start with some version of "How could you possibly believe ..." It beggars belief, we tell ourselves, that someone would hold a view that's clearly flawed. In the case of that parent, they must feel like they know their son better than anyone else. So it comes as a shock to them when they're told to accept a new reality that ruptures that belief. Something else must be afoot. I agree that it can be a hard one to avoid on account of what it demands of us in terms of self-awareness.