The "susceptibility to sudden belief system conversion" is the issue that I find most intriguing and perplexing.
It's intriguing because it is seen to actually happen (so we know it's possible).
It's perplexing because the beliefs in question do not necessarily progress towards increasingly accurate ones. The gains in accurate knowledge are neither monotonic nor fluid in time.
As near as I can tell (
from recent observations), belief system reversals seem to correspond to guidance from selected mentors whom one respects. Guidance from disrespected sources tends to be rejected, no matter how authoritative or accurate the disrespected source might be.