15 Characteristics of an INTOLERANT PERSON

Do you know someone who gets excited or upset when others think differently? Perhaps you are in the presence of an intolerant person. Intolerance is the rejection, evasion or even elimination of other opinions or people. It is true that being 100% tolerant is something very complicated. However, intolerant people often have a particular opinion about a subject and do not support the adversity of opinions. In addition, they do not accept that, in some aspects, they may be wrong.

Nor is it that we all think the same, since since we have the use of reason each person thinks differently, and that must be respected. In this Psychology-Online article, we will describe what are the characteristics of an intolerant person so you can learn to identify them.

Index

1. What does it mean to be an intolerant person?
2. has many prejudices
3. She is a fan of her beliefs
4. Discriminate people for their ideals
5. Does not listen to the opinions of others
6. Invent scenarios and knowledge that are not real
7. Their mental and psychological schemes are rigid
8. You like to keep a routine
9. It is authoritative and imposing
10. Has difficulty relating
11. See people with opposing thoughts as enemies
12. Has an explosive temper
13. She can't stand being criticized
14. He likes to have everything under control
15. She is very jealous
16. is afraid of the unknown

intolerance is the inability to accept opinions contrary or different from our own. Etymologically, intolerance is a term of Latin origin that comes from the word “intolerance”, which translates as “one who does not tolerate other opinions”. For this reason, intolerant people are defined as people who are unable to bear situations, ideas or people who do not agree with their own thoughts.

Throughout history, intolerance has been the cause of the great conflicts of humanity, whether due to race, sexuality, religion or political ideology. The saddest and cruelest episodes in human history began because of intolerance.

Furthermore, the intolerance brings with it intransigence and discrimination, since those who project it are incapable of establishing a dialogue to promote coexistence. Next, we will show you the main characteristics of an intolerant person.

One of the first characteristics of intolerant people is that they are full of prejudices that lead them to make value judgments above all. Therefore, they have many established stereotypes, for which they judge "a priori" to any person, idea or opinion, without even getting to know them.

In addition, they are specialists in judging others all the time due to their ideals, values ​​and thoughts. If you want to know the consequences of this behavior, in this article, we tell you How do prejudice affect society?.

As intolerant people are faithful defenders of their ideas, they have a high degree of fanaticism towards what they believe. Thus, they express an overflowing and excessive passion for their thoughts in order to get others to accept their point of view.

It is common for fanaticism to be greater among groups of people who share the same thought, which often ends in interpersonal conflicts.

One of the main characteristics of an intolerant person is that, apart from fanaticism and prejudice, they show a high level of discrimination towards those who do not share their ideals. He even loses patience quickly and gets out of control at the slightest hint of different thoughts.

It generally discriminates for reasons of religion, race, sexual orientation or any other ideology. The truth is that he is always looking for a topic or some orientation to justify an unequal and disrespectful treatment.

As we already mentioned, intolerant people are characterized by defending their position with great passion, but not only that, because they are unable to hear the point of view of others. They always think that the truth only belongs to them. Therefore, knowing or listening to what others think or think becomes a waste of time for people who are highly intolerant.

In order not to give in to their position, intolerant people invent and create unrealistic scenarios, data and information to support their theory. Another characteristic of this type of personality is that, when cornered before the opinion of another person, resort to other psychological strategies to defend themselves, such as aggressiveness or teasing.

Other characteristic features of intolerant people is that their mental and psychological schemes are very rigid, that is, they are not able to accept a contrary thought. In fact, that makes them very anxious.

Some studies indicate that this psychological rigidity or dichotomous thinking it can also cause some cognitive inflexibility. Thus, the intolerant have great difficulty in modifying their learning systems and beliefs. This leads them to adopt aauthoritarian attitude to hide their insecurities.

Continuing with the characteristics of intolerant people, one of their most striking aspects is that they do not support changes in their usual routines. In fact, for them what is known gives them security. In other words, they don't like to explore new things so they don't have to face and assimilate any changes in their lives.

Intolerant people have high authoritarian traits. for them only their ideas have value and they must impose them At whatever price. Similarly, they try to overshadow other people's thoughts. For this reason, they tend to become aggressive in the face of any communicative exchange and seek to impose their opinions above others.

Another characteristic of an intolerant person is that their the quality of their interpersonal relationships is low. His authoritarian and imposing behavior makes it difficult for people who enjoy being next to someone intolerant.

Let us remember that personal relationships are based mainly on trust, respect and ability to be empathic with others and obviously these traits are not present in a person intolerant. If you want more information about it, in this article, we tell you how to maintain good interpersonal relationships.

Perhaps this is one of the most dangerous characteristics of intolerant people, because they see the contrary thought as an enemy. In this sense, they see as enemies all the people who do not think like them. As a consequence, his social circle is usually very small and they have very little support if any problems arise.

Intolerant people react explosively and aggressively to any individual who does not think like them. In fact, heContrary opinions become a threat that unleashes anger and hostility. In addition, they are unable to manage emotions correctly, so they end up involved in a climate of aggressiveness and irritability.

If an intolerant person receives criticism, advice or an opinion about something that he is not doing correctly, immediately his reaction will be aggressive and will not accept any point of view other than his own. All criticisms become threats of their own truth.

An obvious characteristic of intolerant people is that they like to have everything under control. As we already mentioned, they have a lot of mental rigidity when it comes to their daily routines. Thus, sudden and simple changes immediately upset them.

Likewise, his way of seeing life has no nuances, that is, either everything is white or everything is black. Therefore, intolerant people want the individuals around them to share the same vision.

People with a high degree of intolerance They can't bear to see the triumph of others because they feel jealousy and envy. In fact, when someone around you is successful, they may come to see you as an enemy. The safest thing is that this will cause them great discomfort and even a state of constant anxiety.

Another characteristic of an intolerant person is that they have fear of the unknown and uncertainty. Therefore, he enters a state of panic and anxiety if something gets out of his control. In other words, he doesn't like spontaneity. In these situations, we recommend reading this article on how to manage uncertainty.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Characteristics of an intolerant person, we recommend that you enter our category of Personality.

• Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
• Bizumic B, Kenny A, Iyer R, Tanuwira J, Huxley E. ( 2017 ). Are the ethnically tolerant free from discrimination, prejudice and political intolerance? European Journal of Social Psychology, 47, 457 – 471. doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2263
• Cohen, A.J. (2004). What is tolerance. Ethics, 115, 68–95. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/421982