A term used to describe a common characteristic of both scientists and pseudoscientists the unshakeable conviction of rightness, whatever the evidence. Sometimes this conviction is so strong that it defies disproof. The holder knows his idea is right, and any denial is dismissed with varying levels of contempt. The denier has not understood, or is blinded by prejudice, or the contrary evidence is unsound, and so on. In some cases, believers have been proven correct, as in the case of Alfred Lothar Wegener, who was convinced of the reality of continental drift long before there was sufficient experimental evidence to substantiate it.