I think that those are two distinct problems: refusing to take a position (Crono) and refusing to reconsider an entrenched position (Vaniver). I wrote more about the latter, I think I've seen it happening more often to people around me. I especially find it staggering how little effort people spend on picking the opinion to defend vs. how much the expend on defending it.

It's not just about opinions that are worthwhile to have and defend for political reasons and tribe affiliation. My roommate for example will automatically pick the side against me in any argument just to be contrarian, even if it's just between us. Then, he will spend hours performing rationalization and confirmatory research until he has fully convinced himself of a position that he had no prior cause to favor (even I'm the dumbest person in the world, reversing my opinions can't be a truth-signal). Needless to say, after every exercise in this vein he congratulates himself on being extremely intelligent because he "fought well".