Wilful ignorance.
I don’t know if this fully counts as a personality trait, but it really bothers me when people are told new information, but they refuse to accept it because that would require them to change their own world views. And I don’t mean just in regards to big things, like veganism or racism, or anything that big, although those are obviously big issues.
It really bugs me when people get very defensive over something that in the grand scheme of things is not that important. I see it a lot when I discuss fitness with people. If I tell people that I am a runner, they automatically assume that I am running to lose weight and then I will stop. If I then explain to them that I run for my mental health, they will double down and say that my mental health is bad because I don’t like my body. If I then explain that strictly speaking running is quite a bad way to lose weight and really a person should be doing mainly weight training in order to lose weight, they will simply laugh and say that it’s not true. They won’t ask more questions, they won’t try to understand my personal motives for exercise. They made their mind up and they won’t budge on it, and the more you try to discuss the topic with them, the less they want to talk.
I am someone who is always trying to learn. I actually enjoy learning about new topics. This can range from learning about different religious teachings to learning about prehistoric animals. I try to obtain information from a variety of different places as well, from books, to YouTube videos, to academic papers. I would never claim to know everything about any particular topic (except maybe when it comes vegan junk food) and when someone gives me new information about a topic, I try to make it a point to look into their argument more. This may be asking them questions there and then to understand their position more, or it is to make a note in my phone to research the topic a bit more later on. I guess for me, I can never understand people who do not want to keep learning. And again, I don’t think this means that we all have to be experts on religion or politics or other big topics, but people who don’t even want to hear about this new TV show that is doing the rounds, or to learn a bit more about this new fantasy novel I have just read, just strikes me as a big red flag.
Taylor Talks Vegan 