Certainly I have found, on those extremely rare and unusual occasions when I turn out not to be completely 100% in the right, it is much less painful to admit it when I am debating someone who mercifully points out those areas in which I was right. It would be nice to think I reacted to being corrected with the gratitude I think in theory I should, but in reality it is not only much easier to agree one was wrong when not irritated by good points being ignored, but also much less embarrassing not to have to look totally mistaken. (It occurs to me that one of the many recent areas of misunderstanding in the debate on dogpiling was that one side was hearing 'I don't like being backed into a corner, so I'm going to tell you you're being rude to do it' when what the other side was trying to say was 'I've found I'm more persuasive when I leave other people a graceful way out'.)