Dichotomy

We are biased to think of things in terms of binary oppositions such as “black and white”, “rich and poor”, “all or nothing”, “good or bad” and more. We rarely envision the middle grey matter. The binary thinking fuels the polarization and division between the groups, such as supporter or haters of Donald Trump.

What does make us think in binary?

There is no ballpark answer to it. I could not find any well researched paper. Probably, we are conditioned to think in terms of binary. Maybe it was useful for our four fathers during those times. But is it still useful any longer?

We rarely think of the third category, which leads to incorrect decisions at times. There are things which are adiaphorous. We have the tendency to think of the extremes. Either we will do everything, or we will do nothing from day one.

We don’t know everything. But we do know something. We lie in the middle area, not the extreme ones. Most of today’s population lies in the middle area. Researchers have proven that we are more sad for our failures than being happier for our achievements.

Similarly, we have the habit of comparing. We compare with the super successful directly started to think we are at the opposite extreme level. If you change the lens and observe from a super failure’s eyes, you might be a super successful personality.

Technically, we are somewhere in the middle of the number line, where the extremes keep changing as we progress. Next time thinking in dichotomy, just do reality check if you are only thinking in terms of extremes. There might be higher chances that there lies a grey matter between the extremes.

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