Irrefutable failure of a prophecy does not cause true believers — people who have committed themselves to a belief both emotionally and by their life choices — to reconsider

Paul Krugman makes an astute observation:

Back in the 1950s three social psychologists joined a cult that was predicting the imminent end of the world. Their purpose was to observe the cultists’ response when the world did not, in fact, end on schedule. What they discovered, and described in their classic book, “When Prophecy Fails,” is that the irrefutable failure of a prophecy does not cause true believers — people who have committed themselves to a belief both emotionally and by their life choices — to reconsider. On the contrary, they become even more fervent, and proselytize even harder.

He says he is not talking about the Mayan Calendar — but I wonder: Could what he says apply to true believers in Google? I have for many years observed that Google is often considered to be the Pope of the Internet — basically, whatever Google says is taken by true believers to be the absolute truth.

So I wonder how Professor Krugman feels about the top 10 results for search terms such as “debt” and “interest rate“. Does the Pope of the Internet get it “right“?