Why certain people will never admit they were wrong

psychological rigidity is not a sign of strength

We all make mistakes and we do so with regularity. Some errors are small, some are bigger and some are crucial.

No one enjoys being wrong. It’s an unpleasant emotional experience for all of us. The question is how do we respond when it turns out we were wrong?

Some of us admit that we were wrong, some of us kind of imply that we were wrong But some people refuse to admit they’re wrong, even in the face of overwhelming evidence.

What in their psychological makeup makes it impossible for them to admit they were wrong, even when it is obvious they were? And why does this happen so repetitively — why do they never admit they were wrong?

The answer is related to their ego, their very sense-of-self. Some people have such a fragile ego, such brittle self-esteem , such a weak “psychological constitution,” that admitting they made a mistake or that they were wrong is fundamentally too threatening for their egos to tolerate.

People who repeatedly exhibit this kind of behaviour are, by definition, psychologically fragile. It takes a certain amount of emotional strength and courage to deal with that reality and own up to our mistakes. Most of us sulk a bit when we have to admit we’re wrong, but we get over it.

How we respond to such people is up to us. The one mistake we should not make is to consider their persistent and rigid refusal to admit they’re wrong as a sign of strength or conviction, because it is the absolute opposite — psychological weakness and fragility.

~Maryam Javed .