Climate change. Inflation. Carbon tax. Gun control. My guess is you have opinions about them, whether for or against. My guess is also that your friends and family have opinions about them. Strong ones. We’re in a moment where strong opinions are not only felt, but also expressed. Frequently online. And the ways we express them are almost always polarizing.
When issues we care about are at stake, we tend to retreat into an either-or mentality. Yet, from a neuroscience perspective, we become more thoughtful and make wiser decisions when we open our mind to possibility. The types of cultural conversations that seem to never stop churning around these and other issues give the illusion that there are only ever two options to choose from—and only one right answer. They don’t leave much room for uncertainty or flexibility. As documentary- filmmaker Ken Burns said in a recent podcast, “We are in an age where everyone is certain about something.”
Your Brian on Binaries
Sometimes referred to as black-and-white, all-or-nothing, or dichotomous thinking, binary thinking is this tendency to view things through an “either-or” lens. It is a heuristic—a simple way to process and categorize complex ideas—whereby we perceive things as either good or bad, right or wrong, true or false.
Dr. John Paul Minda, a professor of cognitive psychology at Western University in London, Canada, describes binary thinking as the cognitive tendency to perceive things in a way that puts them into one of two, often opposite, categories. “We tend to emphasize or process features which discriminate, and don’t process features which might call attention to similarities within that category,” he says. For example, in Canadian and American electoral systems, voters are forced to make a decision between one candidate or another. To reduce the stress and doubt associated with this, individuals are more likely to surround themselves with people who share their political views than seek common ground with people who vote differently.
Humans have good reason for this sort of thinking—survival. Long ago, prior to the development of modern societies, whether or not we survived depended largely on our ability to think fast and make rapid judgments, even when we lacked a full picture. When sensory information enters the central nervous system, it is sent to both the cortex (the brain region involved in higher-order thinking and conscious decision-making) and the amygdala (involved in processing emotion) simultaneously. In emotionally charged situations, the amygdala assigns a label of “good” or “bad” before the cortex comes “online,” so to speak. This response allows us to react to potentially life-threatening situations without needing to process every piece of information.
By relying on this default reactive way of thinking, we make assumptions that are often inaccurate and sometimes dangerous, especially when they concern an entire group of people.
“Cognitive neuroscience research suggests that this type of thinking is pretty fundamental to the way that the brain is organized,” says Minda. And from one perspective, this has its benefits: The process of making judgments and decisions requires energy, and a lack of certainty makes us feel more vulnerable, catapulting us into anxious thoughts. So, to conserve cognitive resources and reduce anxiety, we naturally gravitate toward putting things neatly into categories.
However, in day-to-day life, most situations—even the emotionally charged ones—don’t call for this survival response. While mental shortcuts allow us to form simple conclusions about complex situations, our modern world can rarely be reduced to black-and-white—and believing it can be contributes to a multitude of problems.
The Flawed Logic of Black-and-White Thinking
Let’s say you’re meeting someone for the first time and they say something that rubs you the wrong way. Perhaps they disagree with your take on protecting the environment. Instead of pausing to consider their perspective, you decide that they’re a bad person. This is part of binary thinking: making a snap judgment without pausing to consider another’s point of view. Judging someone as entirely good or bad either puts them on a pedestal or vilifies them, and can lead to prejudice and discrimination. The truth is, humans are complicated and sometimes contradictory.
As if our own neural wiring wasn’t enough, we also have to contend with being more “connected” than ever. “People tend to get more polarized the more time they spend on social media, especially if it fosters political discussion,” Minda says. He points out that social media acts as an echo chamber for its more than 4.8 billion global users, serving up content that, thanks to algorithms, bolster our existing opinions and beliefs—even when it’s based on information that’s harmful or flat-out wrong. “The algorithm will show you things that it predicts you’ll like. Its job is to try and figure out what kind of binary thinking appeals to you,” he says. If something doesn’t align with our existing views, most of us will ignore it, either consciously or otherwise, a phenomenon known as confirmation bias.
Binary thinking is oversimplistic. As much as we wish it wasn’t, life is complicated, and viewing the world in black and white completely ignores the nuances—the gray areas—of the big issues, and of everyday life. By relying on this default reactive way of thinking, we make assumptions that are often inaccurate and sometimes dangerous, especially when they concern an entire group of people. Failing to appreciate situational nuances can lead to tunnel vision and prevent us from seeing alternatives.
From Binary Thinking to Curiosity
Binary thinking is fundamental to human cognition. While we cannot avoid it altogether, mindfulness may help us notice when we’re engaging in it and remind us to press pause. Minda, who refers to mindfulness as the practice of “paying attention to what’s happening in your mind and body without judgment,” says that having higher trait mindfulness—naturally occurring or dispositional mindfulness, as opposed to state mindfulness, which occurs during and after mindfulness practices—may mean you’re less likely to rely on logic-defying heuristics like binary thinking.
Mindfulness teacher and researcher Dr. Shalini Bahl recalls how she felt forced to choose between two outcomes during her stint as a city councillor in Amherst, Massachusetts. Some of her fellow councillors, backed by a resident majority, voted for a temporary moratorium for a large-scale solar project on private land with trees. “There was a lot of pressure to vote. It was very much an ‘either-or’ thing,” she says. “That’s when my understanding of binary thinking really came into play, during my role as a political leader.”
Not everything needs an answer right away. And learning to sit with the questions we’ve asked can often help us find that nuance.
Instead of doing the easy thing—recusing herself from voting—Bahl tried another option. She approached the dilemma with curiosity. “There was a third way of looking at the situation that wasn’t either-or,” she says. “It’s both yes and no. We need more solar and also want to protect our forests. How can we do both?” She knew that despite not having the immediate answers, she needed to stay engaged and openminded by speaking with individuals outside of her immediate circle. Instead of a moratorium, a guide was created for implementing responsible solar development. As she writes in her book Return to Mindfulness, “Curiosity enabled me to navigate a complex decision with diligence.”
Make Time for Questions
When faced with a difficult decision, it can help to shift our focus from a place of judgment to curiosity. “Generally, we’re listening with an agenda rather than truly trying to understand the lived experience of the other person,” says Bahl. “We’re often just listening to prove that they’re wrong. There’s no room for asking questions.” Mindfulness practice is also a useful tool for being comfortable with discomfort. Not everything needs an answer right away. And learning to sit with the questions we’ve asked can often help us find that nuance.
Tapping into our innate curiosity can help us better understand the complexities of each situation, increasing our resistance to making impulsive decisions. In a time where misinformation is prolific across the media, it is more critical now than ever to be able to recognize our own biases and increase our receptivity to different perspectives. Try it next time you find yourself stuck in a conflict. Pause, breathe, and in Bahl’s words, ask yourself, “What is my intention here? Who can I go to who might offer a different point of view?” You may be surprised by what you learn.
