Born stubborn

People don't like to admit when they are wrong. People don't like to acknowledge things that conflict with what they feel or what feels comfortable. If thinking about something makes us uncomfortable, we'd rather not think about it. I don't like to be told I need to do something even when I know I need to do it. It grates me; makes me annoyed. I'm not doing it. I know I should be doing it. I'd rather not think about it.

Would you call this stubbornness or procrastination, or something in between?
If you consider our pride in our self-control, in not being controlled, in being intelligent, in being someone others respect, then it is easy to see the conflict that arises when we do something stupid or when someone tells us what to do. It is easier and more comfortable to maintain our self-image than to accept the truth.

So, people do stupid things and refuse to admit that they are wrong because they are stubborn. Who cares?

What does being wrong mean? Instead of talking about factual rights and wrongs, consider gradients in more nebulous things that are not clearly right and wrong, but better and worse, or preferable and more difficult… Things like cultural values, religions, driving skills, etc.

If you find yourself in a particular state of race, culture, religion, you will probably have a hard time believing that everyone else is equal, even though they are different. Most people find reason to justify why their particular state is preferable. Psychologists call this cognitive dissonance, and have collected evidence to support this theory…

Example 1
One is the reaction of a religious group whose prophecy fails to come true. Research (ibid., at p. 22 ff.) has shown that if a group predicts, say, the end of the world, and at the appointed time the world does not end, the group responds to this failure of the prophecy by suggesting that their activity warded off the anticipated apocalypse, and begins to proselytize on the grounds that theirs is the effective belief system for warding off such disaster. One might have thought that failure of the prophecy would suggest that the group could not predict. But such an interpretation would produce dissonance with the group's strongest beliefs. On the other hand, the interpretation that they had successfully warded off the disaster does not produce such dissonance with their belief system.

Example 2
Research has shown that people exhibit greater liking of an organization that subjects them to severe initiation than to one that subjects them only to a mild initiation. This result can be explained by cognitive dissonance theory. There is conflict between the negative affect that the person experiences in response to the initiation, since the person has chosen to go through the initiation to gain entrance to the organization. This conflict produces discomfort and tension. The person can resolve this tension by justifying the initiation as "worth it" because of the positive things he or she will gain from the benefits of membership. The more effort put into the justification process, the more attachment the person has to the organization. The more difficult the initiation; the greater the need for justification; and thus the stronger the commitment to the organization.

Interesting, eh?
So, science is showing that people are stubborn and become more stubborn the more you back them into a corner.

Hmm… Why? Why are we stubborn?
I refuse to stop at “just because.”

My hypotheses are:
A) Self-preservation – we’re biased in favor of ourselves and take better care of ourselves rather than wasting our energies and resources on people better or more deserving than us.
B) Necessary energy – things which are challenging take more energy and need more commitment. Raising a kid, for example, requires a heavily biased commitment, or “deactivation energy”.
C) Invested energy – changing your mind all the time does not help to get anything done. If you’ve already committed time and energy to something, then it usually is better to stick with it than to give up.
D) Social cohesion and loyalty – being loyal to a group is usually better and safer than changing groups or taking off on your own…