Dichotomous thinking: what it is, examples and how to overcome it

Our way of thinking, making forecasts and drawing judgments and conclusions from events does not always follow logic and is based on the principle of reality. Often these cognitive modes become automatic dysfunctional mechanisms involved in the genesis and maintenance of psychological problems and disorders. The rigid and massive use of these interpretive modalities leads to the appearance and consolidation of thoughts dysfunctional automatic, dysfunctional ways of interpreting experiences that cognitive psychology defines distortions cognitive. Dichotomous thinking is one of them, and we can easily recognize it when we adopt a way of thinking that follows a fairly common "o-o" structure: "win or lose."

In this Psychology-Online article we are going to see, what is dichotomous thinking, some examples about it and how to try to overcome it.

Index

1. What is dichotomous thinking
2. Examples of dichotomous thinking
3. The problems of dichotomous thinking
4. How to overcome dichotomous thinking

The dichotomous thinking (or polarized thinking) consists of elaborate reality in a binary way, without intermediate graduations and is a cognitive distortion resulting from the need to simplify, pigeonhole reality. For example:

• Either you succeed or you fail
• Either get fat or lose weight
• Either you do it or you don't

Here you can see more information about the cognitive distortions. Dichotomous thinking is a residue of childhood thinking, when the child is not yet able to grasp the gradualness and nuances. It seems that somehow, or in some area, there is a fixation on that level of functioning, the consequence of which is a cognitive organization marked by dichotomies of the type: totally right or wrong, true or false, good or bad. The not perfect choice is automatically labeled a disastrous choice; there is no middle ground.

What is a dichotomous person? People with this thinking tendency conceptualize aspects of reality in the extremes of what, instead, should be a continuum, losing the infinity of nuances between the two poles. In fact, dichotomous thinking, that is, of the type all or nothingIt is at the base of both extremist attitudes, as well as ethical and aesthetic categories (correct and bad, good and bad, beautiful and ugly). For this reason, dichotomous thinking is also called polarized thinking. What is polarization in psychology? Here we explain what dichotomy is with practical examples.

Dichotomous thinking is very reassuring, especially if the thinker automatically takes the side of reason, intelligence, justice, beauty, and truth. Open the newspaper, look at an Internet news site, listen to a piece of news, and make a list how many examples of dichotomous thinking they find, and how many blank thinkers and black.

• A husband whose wife does not agree with the arrangement of the items in the closet that she has just ordered says, "She is not happy with me for what I do."
• When we think that a change in our lives either it will ruin it forever, or it will bring us absolute happiness, or even when we think that either a person will behave in a certain way, or it will be over with us forever.
• A young man meets, through social networks, a girl he is interested in. After a few weeks she asks him for a way out and is successful, but soon a problem arises discovering that he will not have the car at his disposal: the parents need it, precisely at night of the appointment! Preoccupied with anxiety, he calls his best friend, but even he can't please him. "If you loved me, would you do me this favor".
• You go to a job interview and during the interview you are surprised with a question, you get tense and do not answer as you want. If you look at this experience through the lens of thought "all or nothing", you will likely end up reducing your performance during the interview, thinking that you've been a complete failure and convincing you that you will never be chosen for that job, causing feelings of disappointment and shame.

Exercising dichotomous thinking means believing that things can only be either totally correct or totally wrong, that people are or friends or enemies, what days are perfect or horrible, that everything that is not a success is a failure, and that everything that is not virtuous is vicious; what now or never more; that goes or breaks it. And also: that you are either handsome or ugly, that do you love or hate, that either you are absolutely right or you are completely wrong, and so on.

Dichotomous thinking is a cognitive distortion, one of the cognitive biases that can cloud our ability to judge and make wise decisions, because they deform or erase all the elements inconsistent with the vision "in black and white" that, on the contrary, should be considered reasonably. The rigid and massive use of these interpretive modalities, in effect, leads to the appearance and consolidation of dysfunctional automatic thoughts. Grouping human needs, feelings, motivations and actions into categories is like reducing reality to a composite image of two colors, preventing its understanding. Dichotomous thinking has, in fact, some disadvantages:

• It considerably reduces the number of options we can take and limits the possibility of mediating; this tendency could lead us to often feel frustrated.
• Limits our ability to understand the world, which is not always alone or black or white.
• It considerably reduces our flexibility: if there are only two opposite categories, there is never a range of alternatives, the judgments are categorical and the correct path is one and one.
• Some studies show a relationship between dichotomous thinking and disorders such as depression, eating disorders and, in particular, obesity.

In this article we explain what are cognitive biases and types, As the availability bias, the negativity bias, the representativeness bias, the confirmation bias...

In some cases, it may seem reassuring to have only two possibilities of action or outcome (going or not going). Seeing more nuances, different options, however, leads us to question and question ourselves more (which is difficult) but it leads us to have even more cards to play. In the "black and white" labels, in effect, the sense of ourselves is lost, of what we have and have not done to achieve or not achieve the objective. Dichotomous thinking leads, in effect, to perceive a not exactly perfect situation as a complete failure, that is, it does not allow us to grasp the path and what has been done, but only the failure to target.

How to work dichotomous thinking? We must make room for articulated reflections, less peremptory, perhaps beginning to consider that any judgment corresponds to an opposite one and that there may be a third that includes part of both. For each thesis, there is an antithesis, and a synthesis. To avoid dichotomous or polarized thinking, it is necessary to know that there are distortions cognitive functions with the function of simplifying the interpretation of reality, but that through reflection, we can observe a wide range of degrees, levels and options between both extremes.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Dichotomous thinking: what it is, examples and how to overcome it, we recommend that you enter our category of Cognitive psychology.

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