[seren]

I am not saying this is the case for YEC, but usually when you hold and defend some fringe belief, you often have books, videos on Youtube, dvds to sell, conferences to give, in some case museums [1]. (See conspiracy theorist Alex John films [2])

So yes, for some people there are some financial interest. But I would say this is not the main factor. If you have defended an idea for a long time, maybe you have sacrificed some part of your life like family or friend to your passion, and at some point it becomes so tied to your identity, that it must be impossible to realize how wrong your were.

The latter is true for any kind of belief, religious, political or even scientific.

[1] http://creationmuseum.org/

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Jones_%28radio_host%29#Fi...