Short answers, pulled from the story.
In psychology, rigidity refers to an obstinate inability to yield, a refusal to appreciate another person's viewpoint or emotions, and the tendency to perseverate, meaning the inability to change habits or modify attitudes once developed. The opposite of rigidity is cognitive flexibility. Functional fixedness, the difficulty conceiving new uses for familiar objects, is a specific example.
Systematic research on rigidity traces back to Gestalt psychologists Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Köhler, and Kurt Koffka, working in Germany from the late 19th to early 20th century. Charles Spearman later described the concept as mental inertia. The Lewin-Kounin formulation, a separate Gestalt-based theory, later applied the concept to explain inflexible behavior in people with intellectual disability.
Rigidity can be a learned behavioral trait acquired from a parent, boss, or teacher who modeled the same behavior. It also has a genetic component and is commonly associated with autism. Temporary increases in mental rigidity can be caused by sleep deprivation.
Researchers describe three main stages of severity. The first is a strict perception that causes close-mindedness and persistence in one's ways. The second involves a motive to defend the ego. The third stage means rigidity has become part of the person's personality, visible in their perception, cognition, and social interactions.
Yes. Cognitive rigidity is one recognized feature of autism spectrum disorder. It also appears within what researchers call the Broader Autism Phenotype, a collection of autistic traits that are present but do not reach the threshold required for a formal ASD diagnosis.
Rigid thinking has been linked to political conservatism since at least 1950, when The Authoritarian Personality was published, but the actual differences are small and depend on the measurement used. Social conservatism correlates with self-reported dogmatism but less so with other measures, while economic conservatism shows no correlation with behavioral measures of rigidity. Political extremism on both the left and right is associated with more rigidity than political moderation.