A Biophysical and Computational Synthesis of Cognitive Rigidity: How Predictive Processing, Spatial Exclusion, and Network Tensegrity Constrain Belief Updating
The phenomenon of ideological inflexibility—wherein individuals display a profound and enduring resistance to altering deeply held beliefs regarding social groups, political affiliations, or core philosophical tenets—has historically been the domain of sociology and psychometrics. Traditional paradigms have sought to explain this resistance through concepts such as cognitive dissonance, motivated reasoning, and identity-protective cognition. However, reducing behavioral rigidity to a mere psychological failing, an emotional bias, or an irrational social defense mechanism fundamentally misunderstands the biological, physical, and computational imperatives that govern the human nervous system. The adamant refusal to update a core ideological framework is not an error in reasoning; it is the highly predictable