I'm starting to understand that at the core of "belief" is a "story".
Without a story it's hard to establish belief.
Rationality requires abstraction. Concepts are independent of any story.
X + Y = Z is not a story.
My idea-leap: Trump supporters are highly susceptible to stories despite their irrationality. "Crime is up and all immigrants are evil because one woman was killed by an immigrant".
A story.
The data (abstract concept) says otherwise. That doesn't sink in. It never will
Some people cannot work their thoughts abstractly.
Empathy requires some level of abstraction. Projecting yourself into someone else's situation is an abstract exercise.
The use of "story" is a way of compensating for an inability to use abstract concepts to make sense out of a situation.
These people are also highly prone to transactional ethics. 1:1 assessment. No concept of downstream consequences. That's why they are so comfortable arguing for horrible things.
Another insight:
The Bible is a story.
This establishes a lot of beliefs.
There is plenty of irrationality in that story.
But that doesn't matter. The concepts are made tangible and abstraction is not required to understand the story. That's why it is so effective at convincing so many with such irrationality.