[over_the_raibow]

Besides analytical skill, people also posses intuition which is a valid tool to interpret the world. A wife that is cheated on by her husband, intuitively knows that she s cheated on even though she has no proof. She might see the unusual behavior of her husband, the fact that he s secretive doesn't give her attention as he used to or comes home very late. She might even confront him about this only to be met with a lot of logical explanations and alibies(I had to work till late, I went on a teambuilding trip, etc). His reasons might be completely rational and logical but she knows something is wrong. He might even attempt to make it seems she s the hysterical and crazy one while he s the rational and calm guy. See where I m going? Your friends and family don t contest "the data",they couldn t do this even if they wanted. But they have serious reasons to believe something s off. Their intuition is telling that. They might not have the data, only a feeling. But that feeling is strong. They don t deny your good intentions,it s just that you made yourself the defender of a certain conclusion.They have an issue with the mainstream source of that data, with the government and the the industry behind, which academics ar legitimizing through skewed papers, paid research, etc. I suggest to take their skepticism more serious, since even I, from the other side of the world, can see they probably they are right. There is definitely something off and skepticism is reasonable these days.