What is the trait called whereby someone comes up with an answer and is compelled to stick with it regardless?

One example was a group of planes lost in the Bermuda Triangle - the leader made a mistake in navigating and from that point on, he thought they were over the Gulf of Mexico when they were actually over the Atlantic, and he just kept that in his head despite all evidence to the contrary, even disbelieving all the compasses in the planes, until the whole group ran out of fuel and were lost.

There's a name for this kind of phenomenon where you sieze on an answer and it's almost impossible to step back and re-evaluate it in the light of other evidence.

Any ideas?

Answer:
STUBBORN - no other word describes it better.

stubborn
thick-skulled
hard-headed
adamant
vehement
insistent

Inflexible. Unable to think critically. Arrogant (inability to admit the possibility of being wrong)

Obstinate or
Rigidly stubborn.

"In denial" sums it up pretty well.

Denial: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/denial...

"Denial is a defense mechanism in which a person is faced with a fact that is too painful to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence. The subject may deny the reality of the unpleasant fact altogether (simple denial), admit the fact but deny its seriousness (minimisation) or admit both the fact and seriousness but deny responsibility (transference). The concept of denial is particularly important to the study of addiction. Denial is a mechanism of the immature mind, because it conflicts with the ability to learn from and cope with reality. Where denial occurs in mature minds, it is most often associated with death, dying and rape."

Other terms for what you describe are all listed at the end of this fine quote...

"Their belief in Jesus gives them an indefatigably sympathetic confidant, assuages their fear of death and bereavement, wards off existential angst, assures cosmic purpose, and aligns them with the good guys. So handsome are the psychological pay-offs of belief that many, perhaps most, devout orthodox Christians are impervious to all countervailing logic and evidence. Their will to believe vanquishes every disquieting fact, every contrary line of reasoning, no matter how compelling to an impartial eye. Psychologists have a frightening arsenal of terms for the mental habits designed to preserve cherished beliefs: dissociation, absolutist thinking, dichotomization, object permanence, nominal realism, phenomenalistic causality and worse."
— Gary Sloan

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What is the trait called whereby someone comes up with an answer and is compelled to stick with it regardless?

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