Why do we fall for false positives even though they're common?

Last month, the drinking water in a Colorado town was declared unsafe, because it had been contaminated by an ingredient from cannabis. It took two days to discover that this was not the case – a water test had turned up a false positive result. In fact, false positives are widespread in our everyday lives, and we seem to have an innate inability to get to grips with them. The fuss in Hugo, Colorado – a state where cannabis use is now legal – began when a county employee administering a test for drug use decided to use the same kind of test on tap water, rather than saliva, in an attempt to rule out a false positive. When the water tested positive too, it was assumed the test kit was a dud.