What Is Black-and-White Thinking? | Examples & Meaning
Black-and-white thinking is the tendency to categorize people, situations, and ideas in extreme, absolute terms, such as “good vs. evil,” leaving no room for nuance or neutrality.
“If you want to place any limits on speech, then you don’t support freedom of speech at all.”
“This book is terrible because the author portrays the villain in a sympathetic light.”
“If a painting isn’t both realistic and aesthetically pleasing, it’s not art.”
In reasoning and argumentation, engaging in black-and-white thinking makes people vulnerable to certain logical fallacies. In creative writing and other artistic forms, black-and-white thinking can limit creativity and depth, reducing the complexity of characters, plots, and themes.
What is black-and-white thinking?
Black-and-white thinking, also known as dichotomous thinking, is characterized by the tendency to view situations, people, or concepts in strict, absolute terms. It involves dividing everything into clear-cut categories, such as right or wrong, good or bad, and success or failure, without considering nuances or complexities.
Typically classified as a cognitive distortion or cognitive bias (i.e., a common error in reasoning), black-and-white thinking can limit creativity and lead to poor communication and flawed decision-making.
Black-and-white thinking examples
Examples of black-and-white thinking can be found in various domains of life, including politics, relationships, business, and ethics.
Black-and-white thinking in arguments
It often manifests in debates over controversial subjects, where emotions can easily override reasoning.
“If you’re not wealthy, you must be lazy.”
“You’re either a patriot or a traitor.”
“People who don’t follow my religion have no moral compass.”
Black-and-white thinking in the media
In the media, complex issues are often condensed into simplistic, exaggerated narratives. Sensationalistic headlines, biased reporting, and the portrayal of people as either heroes or villains are all examples of how black-and-white thinking can manifest in media messaging.
A podcaster frames a cultural issue as a clash between an undefined “us” and “them”: “If we don’t take this country back, they’re going to destroy our children’s futures.”
Black-and-white thinking in creative writing
In creative writing, black-and-white thinking can result in uninspiring characters, predictable plots, and a lack of emotional depth, reducing a story’s complexity, realism, and relatability. In particular, it can lead to the following problems:
- Flat characters (e.g., a hero who is entirely good confronting a villain who is completely evil)
- Oversimplified relationship dynamics (e.g., characters who strictly love or hate each other with no complexity in their relationship)
- Simplified worldviews (e.g., portraying a society as entirely ideal or entirely dystopian)
Black-and-white thinking and logical fallacies
Several logical fallacies are closely related to black-and-white thinking:
- False dilemma fallacy (also “false dichotomy” or “either-or fallacy”): Presenting only two options when there may be more, reinforcing extreme, simplistic, dichotomous categorizations
- False equivalence fallacy: Equating two unrelated or unequal situations, sometimes resulting in a starkly polarized view of an issue
- Hasty generalization fallacy: Drawing sweeping conclusions from limited evidence, often oversimplifying complex issues into binaries
Frequently asked questions about black-and-white thinking
- What is the opposite of black-and-white thinking?
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The opposite of black-and-white thinking is often referred to as seeing “shades of gray” or recognizing nuance. This mindset involves appreciating subtleties and complexity and acknowledging a spectrum of possibilities.
Pushing back against the cognitive bias of black-and-white thinking enables us to form deeper and more balanced judgments about the world. Appreciating nuance and complexity helps us guard against logical fallacies such as false dichotomies.
- What is nuanced thinking?
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Nuanced thinking involves recognizing that situations, ideas, and individuals are complex and typically have a combination of strengths and weaknesses, allowing for flexibility, understanding, and appreciation of diverse viewpoints and interpretations.
This is closely related to the idea of “seeing shades of gray,” an idiom often used in contrast to black-and-white thinking. This metaphor conveys the idea of considering and acknowledging multiple perspectives, recognizing complexities and nuances rather than interpreting everything in extreme terms.
- What is splitting in psychology?
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In psychology, the term splitting describes a defense mechanism that involves thinking about people in extreme terms (e.g., seeing a person as completely good and later deciding that person is completely evil). Whereas black-and-white thinking is a cognitive bias that pertains to reasoning and affects humans in general, splitting involves human relationships and is associated with specific mental health conditions.
Thinking in extremes makes people susceptible to logical fallacies that involve exaggerated and simplistic representations of an issue, such as the false dilemma fallacy.
- What is binary thinking?
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Binary thinking, or black-and-white thinking, involves categorizing ideas, people, and situations into two distinct, often opposite, groups. “Binary” in this context refers to a classification system that acknowledges only two possibilities, ignoring a spectrum that exists in between. This bias can lead to logical fallacies such as the either-or fallacy.
