Arrogance

[Monica]

I said defence mechanism: being "arrogant" protects yourself from beliefs you consider untrue.

I would say being closed-minded does that. But one can be closed-minded without being arrogant, and vice versa.

There is usually fear hiding being arrogance.

I ask because I was accused of confirmation bias for believing in conspiracy theories, but as far as I know everyone has confirmation bias so basically I was accused of being imperfect. Frankly the person who attacked my beliefs did so in an emotional and unwarranted manner leading me to believe that they have some unresolved issue tied to the topic. I took it as catalyst to process and momentarily challenged my beliefs but they still held up to my internal logic. Does that come across as arrogant?

Standing firm in your beliefs, after examining them and finding the valid, isn't arrogant. You did good to momentarily challenge your own beliefs, to see if they held up. That isn't arrogance; it's humility. You were willing to change your stance and that's commendable! It just so happened in this case that it wasn't necessary to change your stance, because your beliefs held up.

Those who lash out or ridicule conspiracy theorists usually have a lot of fear. For example, they cannot process the idea that their own government attacked its own citizens - it would shake up their cherished concepts of exceptionalism and elitism so prevalent in religion and politics - so they shut their minds to the glaring, irrefutable evidence. Either that or they have something to gain by perpetuating the lie.

In any case, if you've examined your beliefs and found them logically sound, but the other person chooses to attack or ridicule you because of them, to stand firm isn't necessarily arrogant. It might be foolish (since you're probably wasting your time trying to convince someone who doesn't want to be convinced) and it might even be imposing on their free will (depending on the situation), but those are separate issues/catalysts and not necessarily arrogance.