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One time on "This American Life" I think it was, they featured a guy who was mixed race: his father was black, but it was a time when the nice white high-school gal getting knocked up by a black guy was totally unacceptable. So his mom said she got pregnant by this other white guy, which was plausible, and everybody bought it.
The kid comes out dark-skinned, and she comes up with a convenient story about, I dunno, some darker Italian heritage or American Indian in her background; everybody buys this and that becomes the story.
The guy looks in the mirror and sees black features. He IS half African-American. All his friends ask him about it, sometimes people say right to him: "hey dude, you're half black!" And sometimes he wonders WTF? But the importance of maintaining the story, in his head, is so powerful that he shuts out those thoughts. I think it took him 30 years for him to finally ask his mother, at which time she revealed all.
It doesn't even have to be right in front of your face. It can be your face! Maintaining your story is so important that you will find a way to shut out every contradictory fact.
So, what fake things do YOU believe?
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