It was the same when end-of-times predictions failed. Believers just carried on as though it didn't matter. In the case of JWs in the 40s, with stronger beliefs.
Apart from the apocalypse stuff which was pretty binary and as factually and obviously wrong as it's possible to be, there are also always alternative arguments which can be hung on to. It's usually quite hard to prove something absolutely wrong, not matter how weak the counter argument.
In the UK we're in the process of having a referendum on leaving the EU. Each and every statistical 'fact' has an equal and opposite rebuttal. This process allows people to 'go with their gut'. And some people's guts are pretty unpleasant.
Motivated reasoning is cute.
Je suis Charlie. Je suis Ahmed. Je suis Juif. Je suis Parisien.
Life, don't talk to me about life - Marvin the Paranoid Android
"Science adjusts it's views based on what's observed.
Faith is the denial of observation so that Belief can be preserved."
- Tim Minchin, in his beat poem, Storm.