“Gratuitous affirmations of a dominant theory can mesmerize the unwary. They lull people into assuming that objectively difficult problems don’t really matter. That they’ve been solved already. Or will be solved soon. Or are unimportant. Or something. They actively distract readers from noticing an idea’s shortcomings. “Of course,” students are effectively prompted, “everyone knows what happened here—right? You’d be blind not to see it—right?” But the complacency isn’t the fruit of data or experiments. It comes from the powerful social force of everyone in the group nodding back, “Of course!”