In 1979 there was the Three Mile Island incident involving a nuclear reactor. I read the description of how operators would not believe their instruments and took steps that made the situation worse. I could not understand why they did not believe the surprising yet plausible readings. Then I remembered something that had happened to me some years before. I recount that personal experience here:

I noticed that the gasoline gauge in my car was reading half full when the tank was indeed full. I recall wondering how expensive it would be to get the gauge repaired and whether I could get along without it. I thought not. Two more days passed and when the tank was about half empty the car stopped.

I was indeed out of gas! The gauge had been working perfectly. I had been deluded as to the real amount of gas. Only then did I recollect that the last time I had put gas in the car I had been short of cash and only half filled the tank.

Early Volkswagens lacked a gas gauge and I was sure that I could not get along without a gas gauge. I was entirely unaware of my innate sense of how much gas I had. Yet when that unconscious innate sense conflicted with what I rationally believed was my only source of information, the innate sense completely overrode the gauge reading. I was unaware of the conflict—only aware of the broken gauge. The thought that the gauge was correct did not enter my mind even briefly until the car stopped.