What is dogmatism?
Johnson: Dogmatism is the practice of pronouncing ones beliefs with rigid, arrogant certainty. Absolute certainty. Psychologically, it is considered a personality trait in which various aspects of evolution, biology, culture, and social learning predispose people to act as if they were the sole expert on a subject. Even in the face of convincing evidence that should give reason to pause, dogmatic people will not, as Churchill said, “change their minds or change the topic.” They simply refuse to see things any other way, and fail to consider the possibility they might be wrong. This book outlines thirteen assumed features of dogmatism – 5 cognitive, 3 emotional, and 5 behavioural (a minimum of 6 out of 13 characteristics are presumed necessary to determine trait presence). Each feature is clearly explained and illustrated with comments that will be familiar to readers. Four broad categories of causes are expanded on in nine chapters (the Chapter Titles link summarizes theories of causal
