<p>STUBBORNNESS is one of seven basic character flaws or “dark” personality traits. We all have the potential for stubborn tendencies, but in people with a strong fear of change, Stubbornness can become a dominant pattern.</p>

<p>Like all character flaws, stubbornness involves the following components:</p>

<p>1  Early negative experiences
  2  Misconceptions about the nature of self, life or others
  3  A constant fear and sense of insecurity
  4  A maladaptive strategy to protect the self
  5  A persona to hide all of the above in adulthood</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-24T14:13:14.210Z
Welcome to Psychology.SE. Do you have any reference materials to provide which back up your claims? We require answers to be backed up by research and as it stands, your answer could be open to challenge as just opinion.
Chris Rogers
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-25T09:08:31.307Z
It comes from here: http://personalityspirituality.net/articles/the-michael-teachings/chief-features/stubbornness/
Revious
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-05-24T11:43:04.003Z
2018-05-24T11:43:04.003Z
Mohammed Sani Seid
<p>A few bits of useful jargon come to mind...</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Low <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_complexity" rel="noreferrer">cognitive complexity</a> may lead to simplistic and absolutist thinking, which one may also refer to as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splitting_%28psychology%29" rel="noreferrer">splitting</a> or &quot;black-and-white&quot; thinking (because there's no recognition of &quot;grey areas&quot;).</p>
</li>
<li><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closure_%28psychology%29" rel="noreferrer">Need for closure</a> and low <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openness_to_experience" rel="noreferrer">openness to experience</a> may lead to <em>resistance to change</em>, which is a somewhat less pejorative alternative to &quot;stubbornness&quot;. &quot;Mental rigidity&quot; is a little more subtly pejorative, in that you'd probably feel a little offended if someone called you mentally rigid, but clinical literature sometimes uses these terms nonetheless. Hence it has more pathological connotations than &quot;stubborn&quot;, which I think people recognize as more normally applicable – i.e., you can be stubborn without being psychologically abnormal or clinically dysfunctional, but you probably won't feel proud of it, and would prefer more euphemistic terms like &quot;assertive&quot; or &quot;traditional&quot;...which differ in literal meaning from stubbornness.</p>
<p>I guess that's the sort of cognitive distortion that you'd expect to result from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-serving_bias" rel="noreferrer">self-serving bias</a>: &quot;I'm not stubborn! I just happen to be right!&quot; Then again, if I were to say that, I might not be biased; I might actually be right! How's that for self-serving bias? :)</p>
</li>
<li><p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias" rel="noreferrer">Confirmation bias</a> differs somewhat from these. Its effects appear when actually seeking to confirm a belief (or hypothesis in a research context, wherein which we're probably most familiar with it), as opposed to when simply stating an absolute, simplistic belief, or refusing to question it at all. If I actually engage in argument and ignore your counterpoints, then you could say I'm demonstrating confirmation bias, but if I simply &quot;tell you how it is&quot; or tell you that you're wrong and refuse to change, that's really not a matter of confirmation bias per se.</p>
</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-05T17:13:36.980Z
Can I say that all this stuff is really fascinating? It's incredible that most of people knows almost nothing of it. There is really a lot of stuff to study.. and I'm not completely ignorant on this matter.. Compliment for the answer!
Revious
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-05T19:30:06.370Z
You're [preaching to the choir](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=preaching%20to%20the%20choir) :) I'm quite amazed at how much I learn every time I put together an answer based initially on knowledge I already have! I think it's a travesty that we don't teach this stuff in secondary school, or at least require it in college.
Nick Stauner
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-05T20:16:02.260Z
yes! it's incredible. The most interesting and fascinating stuff I discovered are economy, psychology and data mining. And none of this is studied at school. But psychology can **really** change people's life. My life, at least, has changed also because of it.
Revious
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-05T20:36:40.957Z
As [something of a statistician](http://stats.stackexchange.com/users/32036/nick-stauner), data mining is interesting to me too. It complements economics and psychology very well. These sciences have extraordinary power to influence *everyone*'s lives! That's a big part of why I'm a psychologist.
Nick Stauner
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-03T02:24:01.223Z
2014-03-03T02:24:01.223Z
2020-06-17T09:55:31.633Z
Nick Stauner
<p>Some people are <em>stubborn</em>, with strong, absolute <strong><em>beliefs</em></strong>, and it's really hard to change the ideas. They tend to see just the evidence that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias" rel="noreferrer">confirms their ideas</a>.</p>

<p>What is the scientific name of this phenomenon? Confirmation bias? Mental rigidity? Stubbornness?
Can you give me some explanation of that?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-02T21:51:13.683Z
Please, advice me how to avoid the downvotes. I've also tried to improve the post.
Revious
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-03T01:52:52.440Z
By "descending answer", might you mean "[deductive reasoning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deductive_reasoning)"? Also, the connection between the question you ask in the title and the rest of your text is unclear; could you elaborate on how you want to relate [confirmation bias](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias) to the rest of what you've said? Maybe I can clear things up sufficiently in a quick answer...
Nick Stauner
<cognitive-psychology><personality>
Which is the scientific name of stubbornness?
Revious
# Which is the scientific name of stubbornness?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-03-02)

Some people are *stubborn*, with strong, absolute ***beliefs***, and it's really hard to change the ideas. They tend to see just the evidence that [confirms their ideas](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias).

What is the scientific name of this phenomenon? Confirmation bias? Mental rigidity? Stubbornness?
Can you give me some explanation of that?

**Tags:** cognitive-psychology, personality

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Please, advice me how to avoid the downvotes. I've also tried to improve the post.  
> **username_1**: By "descending answer", might you mean "[deductive reasoning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deductive_reasoning)"? Also, the connection between the question you ask in the title and the rest of your text is unclear; could you elaborate on how you want to relate [confirmation bias](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias) to the rest of what you've said? Maybe I can clear things up sufficiently in a quick answer...  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2014-03-03. Score: 6 | Accepted answer

A few bits of useful jargon come to mind...

* Low [cognitive complexity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_complexity) may lead to simplistic and absolutist thinking, which one may also refer to as [splitting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splitting_%28psychology%29) or "black-and-white" thinking (because there's no recognition of "grey areas").
* [Need for closure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closure_%28psychology%29) and low [openness to experience](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openness_to_experience) may lead to *resistance to change*, which is a somewhat less pejorative alternative to "stubbornness". "Mental rigidity" is a little more subtly pejorative, in that you'd probably feel a little offended if someone called you mentally rigid, but clinical literature sometimes uses these terms nonetheless. Hence it has more pathological connotations than "stubborn", which I think people recognize as more normally applicable – i.e., you can be stubborn without being psychologically abnormal or clinically dysfunctional, but you probably won't feel proud of it, and would prefer more euphemistic terms like "assertive" or "traditional"...which differ in literal meaning from stubbornness.

  I guess that's the sort of cognitive distortion that you'd expect to result from [self-serving bias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-serving_bias): "I'm not stubborn! I just happen to be right!" Then again, if I were to say that, I might not be biased; I might actually be right! How's that for self-serving bias? :)
* [Confirmation bias](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias) differs somewhat from these. Its effects appear when actually seeking to confirm a belief (or hypothesis in a research context, wherein which we're probably most familiar with it), as opposed to when simply stating an absolute, simplistic belief, or refusing to question it at all. If I actually engage in argument and ignore your counterpoints, then you could say I'm demonstrating confirmation bias, but if I simply "tell you how it is" or tell you that you're wrong and refuse to change, that's really not a matter of confirmation bias per se.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Can I say that all this stuff is really fascinating? It's incredible that most of people knows almost nothing of it. There is really a lot of stuff to study.. and I'm not completely ignorant on this matter.. Compliment for the answer!  
> **username_1**: You're [preaching to the choir](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=preaching%20to%20the%20choir) :) I'm quite amazed at how much I learn every time I put together an answer based initially on knowledge I already have! I think it's a travesty that we don't teach this stuff in secondary school, or at least require it in college.  
> **username_0**: yes! it's incredible. The most interesting and fascinating stuff I discovered are economy, psychology and data mining. And none of this is studied at school. But psychology can **really** change people's life. My life, at least, has changed also because of it.  
> **username_1**: As [something of a statistician](http://stats.stackexchange.com/users/32036/nick-stauner), data mining is interesting to me too. It complements economics and psychology very well. These sciences have extraordinary power to influence *everyone*'s lives! That's a big part of why I'm a psychologist.  

---

### Answer by username_2 on 2018-05-24. Score: 1

STUBBORNNESS is one of seven basic character flaws or “dark” personality traits. We all have the potential for stubborn tendencies, but in people with a strong fear of change, Stubbornness can become a dominant pattern.

Like all character flaws, stubbornness involves the following components:

1 Early negative experiences
2 Misconceptions about the nature of self, life or others
3 A constant fear and sense of insecurity
4 A maladaptive strategy to protect the self
5 A persona to hide all of the above in adulthood

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: Welcome to Psychology.SE. Do you have any reference materials to provide which back up your claims? We require answers to be backed up by research and as it stands, your answer could be open to challenge as just opinion.  
> **username_0**: It comes from here: http://personalityspirituality.net/articles/the-michael-teachings/chief-features/stubbornness/  

---

