Implicit Acceptance Denial

Failing to accept a claim because accepting it would amount to tacitly accepting an unwanted truth about oneself. The outer thing (the claim) is refused so the inner thing (the self-implication) never has to be faced.

• A professor dismisses a junior’s study, because accepting it would mean admitting he overlooked that direction for years.
• A doctor rejects a new treatment’s evidence; granting it works implies his past patients were undertreated.
• An editor finds reasons to pass on a manuscript whose success would imply his earlier rejections were misjudgments.