The Problem with Binary Thinking
Everyone has their “society would be better if” pet peeves. I am no different. I feel that society would benefit from moving away from binary thinking. As humans we like to simplify things. Which is not necessarily lazy, sometimes it’s more about being efficient, focused. Which is fine. But we are complex individuals living in a complex world. Taking too simple of a perspective doesn’t do ourselves justice.
What do I mean by binary thinking? The primary example is the tendency to split ALL THE THINGS into just two simple categories: black and white, either or, right or wrong. I could say “there are two types of people in this world: people who split people into two groups and people that don’t.” Which is a bit ridiculous because it’s something we all do to some extent. Do I mean group A does it usually and group B does it rarely? Always versus never? Am I splitting these groups on the mean or the median? Or is it so generalized that I could mean something completely different every time I say it?
Binary thinking is supposed to simplify things. But by the time I draw all the lines and define all the qualifications and caveats it’s not that simple anymore. It’s extremely ambiguous and any attempt to properly clarify (if you get called out or questioned on it) quickly gets more complicated than setting up a bit of context and explication in the first place.
Saying that binary thinking is problematic isn’t saying that binary thinking is necessarily “bad.” Saying it’s necessarily bad would be binary thinking which I’d like to avoid. Sometimes it is good. Sometimes it is necessary. Let’s say I’m on a forest walk and a professional guide is showing me how to forage for berries and mushrooms. Understanding the nuances and intricacies of the localized fauna may be very interesting and topical, but I will be very happy for him to give me a thumbs down for “that might be poisonous” or a thumbs up for “this will absolutely not kill you.” Or, if I am crossing the street and I ask my friends if cars are coming, and he sees two busses a van and a truck I do not want him to say “no” on a technicality.
Binary thinking is a form of generalization. We all know that not everything fits neatly into one of two categories. We understand that we live in a complicated world with a thousand colors and a million sounds. No one would try to paint a rainbow in black and white (grayscale doesn’t count, that’s still more than two shades). So my “pet peeve” is nothing ground breaking or new age. Binary thinking is not evil, it’s not bad, my pet peeve may not even be entirely “rational.”
But I do notice when people get carried away with binary thinking, myself included. It’s easy. It’s comfortable. We have a long day, we get tired, we don’t want complicated. We want simple. That’s why Netflix is so popular in an age where we have every book ever written (and some that haven’t even been finished yet) at our fingertips on our phones.
There are a lot of pitfalls to binary thinking. One of which is a lack of gradation. I understand that some classes are pass/fail and with good reason. Sometimes that’s appropriate. But if I’m seriously learning a craft, starting a career, really putting myself into something, I want to know how I’m doing. There’s a big difference between a D+ and an A-. I want to know how I’m doing. Put me on a percentile and let me decide if I’m living up to my own standards.
Putting people on a black/white scale of good/bad is problematic. Pickpocketing is wrong. Taking $5 out of someone’s pocket is bad. That’s a criminal act, which makes you a criminal. Murdering seven people in cold blood is bad. That’s a criminal act, which makes you a criminal. But with only two categories, both people are just “bad.” And commons sense dictates that those two criminals do not belong in the same punitive category by any stretch of the imagination. That’s a quick illustration of why I feel it’s problematic to say “yeah, but that person is technically a CRIMINAL!!!” Or “breaking the law makes you a BAD PERSON!!!” Or even “my job as a district attorney is to put ‘bad guys’ in jail.” I don’t technically disagree, and I understand the need for casual generalization in certain company, but it is not any more difficult to say “I hold people who have broken he law accountable for their actions” instead. That’s just like six more words.
I’m no exception. I happen to be liberal. I try not to judge people for being conservative or thinking differently than me because it’s petty and unfair. But I catch myself thinking that way more frequently than I’d like. I am constantly trying to figure out who’s “with me” and who’s “against me,” or trying to fit every political person as either “left” or “right.” This is unfair to conservatives, but it also leads to the disservice of misclassifying my liberal friends as often as my conservative friends. I fall into the trap of assuming that because someone is liberal or progressive that they necessarily share ALL THE OPINIONS that I do. I get victimized by this as well, yet I am still more often the perpetrator of this form of generalization, so I can’t really complain. [I mean I can, but I realize that doing so is hypocritical.] It’s not fair to anyone.
So that’s my mea culpa. And let’s face it, any good “pet peeve” is really a projection of one’s own inadequacies. So there’s mine. But as a relatively self-aware person (and I’m at least self-aware enough to write the above paragraph, which should count for something) I would like to explore some methods and practices of moving beyond this type of behavior.
Getting away from binary thinking isn’t all that difficult. Personally, I feel that humans are predisposed, both culturally and neurologically, towards more complex thought. We use the decimal system for math which is base ten. Our language uses 26 letters (the one your using the read this one at least, most languages use even more). Anyone who can read a book can use more than two words to describe either the qualitative moral predisposition of another human individual considering their actions, intents and characteristics. Anyone who can make it this far into this essay can come up with a few extra categories beyond “good vs. evil” to describe a fellow person.
I came up with a quick exercise inspired by the decimal system that anyone can try. We have all taken tests, so we’re familiar with the percentile scale of 1 to 100, and we’ve all taken a consumer survey or two in our time (often foisted upon via some form of capitalist trickery, but that’s a separate pet peeve) so we know how to rate things on a scale of one to ten. So here’s the first exercise to implement: next time you find an opinion online that you have a feeling about one way or another (take your time, do some deep digging, I’m sure you can find one somewhere) think about your personal reaction to that opinion on a scale of one to ten, with one being completely disagree and ten being complete and unconditional agreement.
Do this a few times and see what you find. Do you have a “everything is one or ten” outlook, or do you max out at 9? Perhaps you tend to oscillate between threes and eights. Did you have any fives? Did you find yourself nudging the fives to either 5.1 or 4.9 just for the sake of getting it on one side of the fence or the other? Take some time to figure out your patterns, give it some reflection and you’ll learn about how you approach opinions. You’ll also get some practice pushing yourself outside the habit of binary thinking.
A second phase of the exercise is to think about conditions. Since a ten is “unconditional agreement” then anything less than ten probably has some conditions. Think back on some of your lower scores and give some thought about what the conditions would be for you to agree. Then consider your higher scores and what conditions would cause you to disagree. It helps to do another round of this exercise thinking about conditions while you are initially reacting to different opinions. If you work on this you can get into the habit of understanding your own conditionality on the fly, which really helps you keep perspective about what you believe and how you feel about things. I personally find that doing this on a regular basis engages and encourages both empathy and critical thinking.
So why does this matter? Doing this makes you a better person. If you don’t do it, you are a bad person. In fact, you are a terrible person. THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF PEOPLE IN THE WORLD, PEOPLE WHO DO THIS AND PEOPLE WHO DON’T! There I go again, letting my ego pull me into binary thinking. But you can see how that sounds. [Or looks, since you’re reading this to yourself. Unless you’re reading this out loud. Which is weird. But hey, I don’t judge, you be you.]
And look, none of this is about becoming a perfect person. Yes, I believe that this practice can make you a better person, and yes, I believe that the overall approach this essay is a part of can change the world. But this is more about having a broader and deeper understanding of yourself as an individual. Pushing yourself out of a mode of binary thinking, especially regarding social and political concepts, gives you a better understanding and a better expression of your own values, beliefs and perspectives.
If you get some value from this exercise (it’s not like I expected you to pause reading to go try it right away before finishing this essay, but consider this aside as a little reminder that you should totally try it once your done reading this) you can apply it to other concepts beyond whether you agree or disagree with something. Every time you think about right/wrong, good/evil, even true/false, start putting all those on a scale and reflect on the conditionality of your responses.
Critical thinking is so important right now. We’re going to need more of it if we’re going to make a difference. I know that the people who need it the most are not reading this. But you are. (And thank you, by the way.) I believe that you want to make a difference and I believe you have what it takes to make a difference. This little exercise isn’t going to solve any of the world’s problems, but if it helps you express yourself or sharpen your focus maybe it can amplify the difference you’re already making.
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