How to Deal with Arrogantly Stubborn People: Stay Calm, Set Boundaries, and Preserve Your Peace

“Ever found yourself emotionally drained after talking to someone who always has to be right?”
You’re not alone. Here’s how to reclaim your peace—gracefully and firmly.

 You’re not alone. Dealing with arrogant, adamant characters who never surrender their position, disregard other viewpoints, and refuse to negotiate becomes tremendously exasperating. Interacting with stubborn individuals, whether family members or co-workers, consumes your energy while pushing against your patience. But here’s the truth: you can preserve your peace without compromising your voice.

The guide provides basic empathetic methods for interacting with difficult people without damaging your mental health.

"Understanding the basis of arrogant and stubborn behaviour requires thorough exploration."

Uncovering the roots of stubborn behaviour resembles peeling an onion—you uncover insecurities, fears, and past experiences layer by layer. The examination method has its momentary painful aspects, yet we need to probe until we uncover all essential elements. Understanding the source of someone’s behaviour is crucial for effectively addressing the situation. Taking the time to uncover these underlying reasons will empower you to respond with confidence and clarity.

•  Insecurity and Ego: The seemingly confident but insecure nature becomes a prominent characteristic of many arrogant individuals. Arrogant people often create this façade to hide the weakness they struggle to accept.

•  Fear of Losing Control: People who display such behaviour tend to avoid new perspectives because they worry about losing management authority and appearing defenceless.

• Lack of Empathy: These individuals typically do not obtain an awareness of human emotions or different perspectives.

• Cognitive Dissonance: People generally increase their belief strength upon encountering contradicting information to reduce mental distress. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-cognitive-dissonance-2795012

•  Past Experiences: Their previous successful ideas have strengthened their belief system, so they find it difficult to welcome alternative perspectives.

•  Lack of Self-Awareness: They have limited awareness of how their actions affect others, while their minds remain focused on their objectives.

• Personality Traits: Certain individuals possess natural dominant characteristics that stem from their upbringing together with their self-assurance and personality traits. Through these traits, they achieve success, yet their incapability to understand others creates conflicts. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/communication-success/202012/why-are-some-people-so-arrogant

• Remain Calm and Composed: Staying composed against arrogant people requires the stability of a lighthouse in dangerous weather conditions. Through your calmness, you maintain your position while providing sound direction that resists the emotional currents.

• Don’t react in anger: Deep breathing will help you reply with substance to prevent tension from getting worse.

• Set Boundaries: Guarding personal boundaries proves similar to creating protective fences that surround your garden. This action both lets sunlight pass and prevents damaging forces from entering the area. Your relationships continue to receive sun while destructive forces remain excluded from damaging your inner peace by properly established boundaries. Be explicit about the behaviour limits that will not be tolerated. Defining wholesome limits with dignity guards your mind from harm.

Example: Ravi, along with his family members, should consider how to handle another relative who tends to cut people off while ignoring their comments at dinner. At the family dinner, Ravi maintains his composure while stating to the individual.

“I value your viewpoint, but everyone deserves uninterrupted speaking time.”

Before responding, we should all allow one another complete verbal expression. The family uses this approach to establish better communication, which helps their relative adopt respect for these boundaries, thus creating more peaceful occasions.

• Avoid Power Struggles: Power struggles with stubborn persons and creates ongoing battles that resemble a traditional game of tug-of-war. Releasing your grip on the rope puts an end to circular motion while creating opportunities for helpful directions. Let go of the need to “win.” Maintaining your tranquillity should be your priority instead of attempting to demonstrate something.

Example: Opinions collide between Meera and her stubborn uncle regarding family decisions. She hears what he says and then states, “I hear your concerns,” in a composed manner.

We should focus on choices that benefit everyone instead of concentrating on whose plan originally initiated this. Such a linguistic change helps maintain control of the interaction and promotes collaboration.

• Use Active Listening: Listening actively functions like adjusting radio volume because you focus on understanding messages that might otherwise be lost in the background noise. Observation of another person’s frequency reveals concealed messages that people would normally miss. Paraphrasing their point of view helps people understand that their voice is important. This can lower their defensiveness.

• Lead by Example: Demonstrate humility and openness. Over time, your consistent behaviour can begin to influence theirs.

•  Limit Exposure If Needed: It is acceptable to create space between yourself and the person when their conduct threatens your emotional welfare while seeking support from other people.

•  Use Humor With Caution: The careful use of humour brings out the best flavour in tense dialogues just like a bit of salt adds taste to food. Excessive humor can spoil the dialogue like excessive salt makes a dish unpleasant. Provides relief from tension but Uses only friendly jokes that maintain respect and avoid coming across as sarcastic.

Example; During a family event, Suraj uses joking logic to calm the situation with, “Are we fighting like we’re writing amendments for the constitution?”

This friendly humour serves to destress the situation while maintaining respect for everyone’s perspective.

•  Take a Time-Out: When someone introduces a temporary pause during a heated discussion they activate the reset function much like what happens in video games. Introducing a halt during intense discussions allows everyone to prepare themselves before returning in a new way.

When the conversation reaches an intense stage you should introduce an opportunity to take a pause. Any time brings an opportunity to understand things more clearly while bringing about tranquillity.

•  Focus on the Relationship: Keeping the relationship as your top priority is equivalent to supporting the roots of a tree.

Periodic branch trimming is necessary but you should prioritize root development for sustainable long-term growth of the tree. Hybrid and versatile Screen 19 points out… “As emphasized in modern relationship models, regardless of disagreements, the strength of connection should remain the top priority.”

Strong bonds between friends often face strain due to the increase in arrogance or dismissiveness displayed by one of the partners.

• Recognize the Pattern Without Judgment: Similar to other relationships, some cases of friend arrogance derive from insecurity. Look for habits of standing above everyone else that include maintaining superiority belittling others and shying away from accepting faults. Before making assumptions about behaviour patterns, try to identify the reason behind them.

• Express Without Accusing: Let your friends understand through personal statements the negative impact their arrogant behaviour creates for you.

Example: My friend fails to hear me because he only talks without paying attention to my words.

Using this approach lets people notice their behaviour without feeling attacked.

• Establish Respectful Boundaries: It is appropriate to inform a friend that their pattern of disregarding views and taking control during discussions needs to stop with this statement.

Our time spent together has meaning, but we both must experience equality throughout our communication sessions.
Your emotional protection is safeguarded, but your respect remains intact through establishing parameters.

• Avoid Ego Clashes: A friendship requires emotional security rather than power struggles. Avoid turning conversations into debates.

Showing patience along with humility should replace your immediate attempts to change their behavior at that moment.

• Direct Communication Needs Compassion as Its Primary Element: Communicating pattern recognition to others does not mean you must lose your compassionate attitude. You should make an honest effort to fix things when the friendship holds value.

Continuing a friendship with someone who shows persistent arrogant behaviour becomes necessary to analyze its sustainability.

• Know When to Step Back: A person must create some distance from a friend whenever their arrogance escalates into hurtful behaviours, which include belittling, controlling, or uncompassionate dismissal.

You should make relationships based on mutual respect and understanding the cornerstone of your relationships.

Friendships are typically believed to represent spaces that protect people because they foster collective experiences and the creation of laughter and personal expansion. Peer hubris enters friendships quietly to dissolve the base that supports that bond.

The tricky reality that connections evolve between Ruchi and Tanya transforms into a childhood story featuring them. The story depicts how one friend’s dominance poses problems in a companionship while clear boundaries through empathetic communication reformed and potentially saved the weakened relationship.

Both Ruchi and Tanya maintained a friendship since their childhood years. Since their initial school years and through their transition to college, they experienced all occasions of happiness and grief together.

Throughout the preceding years, Tanya changed because she convinced herself she maintained perfect moral superiority.

The beginning of every casual tea-time conversation fell on similar lines, such as:

Why would you notice anything since you visited London? or

The creative value in projects belongs to me, although your work displays quality.

Ruchi laughed off Tanya’s words before remaining quiet, yet the insulting remarks always caused a small discomfort in her heart.

During a playful conversation, Tanya linked Ruchi’s family members to strange characters. Ruchi lost the smile from her face. She softly said,

Despite intending the comment as a joke, Tanya understood that her words seemed too powerful to simply dismiss. Recent talks between us have evolved into a one-way street.

After the unexpected reaction, Tanya became defensive.

“You’ve become so sensitive lately!”

Ruchi delivered this statement for the first time with peaceful composure.

“I started defining my limits when it comes to accepting unacceptable behaviour.” https://observations.in/the-silent-treatment-understanding-and-overcoming-emotional-manipulation/

I put up with this behaviour in the past, but today I started defining my limits when it comes to accepting unacceptable behaviour. The friendship holds enormous value to me but lacks total completeness when it lacks mutual respect.

The two friends stayed without talking to each other for several weeks.

One day Tanya sent an unexpected message to Ruchi: A new realization appeared that I believed I held higher status than other people. Thank you for speaking honestly.

This friendship can develop with you if you are willing to let me guide it with better understanding.

Ruchi smiled. Both individuals saved their friendship, but it required the audacity of one person to express their feelings and the willingness of another person to listen.

Establish limits between you and protect your emotions despite maintaining affection.

Both Reema and Sakshi maintained a connection since their early childhood days. Throughout the years, Sakshi adopted an attitude that appeared superior.

Throughout their friendship, Sakshi maintained a right-facing perspective, which never let Reema express her opinions and featured herself excessively. At first, Reema stayed silent. The friendship created emotional exhaustion within her.

One day, Reema calmly said,

Our friendship means a great deal to me, Sakshi. Such unidirectional dialogue produces within me an indefinable feeling that my input lacks significance.

The statement resonated within Sakshi’s mind as she remained without speech for some time.

Time passed as they worked toward better communication, which restored their mutual connection.

Not all friendships result in this manner. Trying to explain things does not always lead to improvement between people.

The creation of personal space should become your priority at this point.

The connections that fail to respect individuals should not continue because relationships should have a finite duration. Being free from relationships that damage your self-importance is wiser than enduring them.

• Choose Your Battles: Spending your valuable time on all disputes is not necessary. You should release disagreements that do not personally touch your life.

•  Be Assertive, Not Aggressive: Explain what you understand from their position before delivering your position in a composed manner.

Example: “I hear your point. The following explanation presents how I view this matter differently.

• Use Logic and Facts Strategically: These approaches can assist you in breaking through the situation:

Through Socratic Questioning: You should present questions that need detailed responses such as :

“What drove you to reach that conclusion?” 

Example: The team led by Ajay engages in strategic debates about project methods where his member stands firm on one option. Ajay wants to understand what potential difficulties would emerge when pursuing this particular strategy.”The team can explore if there are other ways to reach their goal.”
The team members can start a thoughtful dialogue while brainstorming together through these probing inquiries.

If that assumption is false, what would be the implications?

Both parties aim to produce superior results. What steps should we take to address this issue jointly?

• The use of visual aids: Both graphs and charts help the audience understand your point more easily.

You should mention dependable research findings or knowledgeable experts when supporting your position.

• Small agreements first: Small agreements should serve as initial points before developing them into larger ones.

You understand why this belief exists and now I will present you with this contrary viewpoint.

 All efforts to transform other people into new versions of themselves will be futile.

It may be best to let go of attempts at changing them while concentrating on how to respond when the situation arises.

•  Seek Mediation if Necessary: A mediator who remains unbiased can successfully address struggles at work and in official circumstances.

• Walk Away if It’s Toxic: Exiting toxic situations resembles the process of leaving behind an environment contaminated with smoke. Stepping away from toxic situations represents strength instead of weakness because freedom becomes more important than submission to poison. The strength of moving away from damaging interactions should not be mistaken as a failure of any kind. Your inner peace deserves higher importance than gaining the victory of a debate.

For example; Nisha faces regular humiliation from her colleagues when ideas are discussed in brainstorming sessions. She understands the toxic environment, so she decides to work with colleagues who support her instead.

The decision to move away from working with this person brings both improved mental well-being and enhanced relationships with colleagues.

• Emotionally tough individuals need patient support along with both emotional and methodical conversation tools.

• You should explore their hidden concerns and reasons before building your response.

• Use a peaceful tone of voice while establishing firm limits and determining which issues to address.
• Always work on controlling your reaction instead of attempting to modify your fundamental personality traits.
• Take care of your emotional health by leaving situations that become harmful to you.

• Getting past an arrogant friend remains difficult unless your honest approach and self-respect lead either to friendship growth or set boundaries against such emotional loss.

When you must deal with stubborn, arrogant individuals, they become highly challenging to handle, whether they are members of your close circle or not. When you carry appropriate mental approaches and suitable communication platforms, you will successfully handle such encounters.

Stay calm. Set boundaries.

Logic, humour, and empathy work effectively to handle all situations.

Letting another person determine your peace of mind represents the key principle that you must always keep in mind.

Has anyone made you face situations with people who have this behaviour? What worked—or didn’t—for you?

Contributions from all readers in the comment section would help us learn valuable insights from one another.

“Read this article in Hindi on my Hindi blog Abhivyakt Anubhuti: [https://abhivyaktanubhuti.blogspot.com/2025/04/blog-post.html]”