Do you tend to think in "Black and White"?

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Ohhh ya, absolutly a black and white thinker here. Not that its nessissarily a bad thing, but when I am trying to maby be creative it can get in the way because having that kind of thinking (for me anyways) makes it so I cant do something differently or solve a problem differenly, like coming up with what would be for me the simple solution, I would be blind to any other way of doing it so somebody else, tho doing something differently, a different solution would still be just as right as mine.

Jeeze... what a simply complex question?!

Same here.

For me, most things either 'are' or 'are not' and I used to be pretty rigid in that. In school, people would complain that 'it's either black or white with you'

However as I've got older I've learnt that, whilst some things may seem to be incontravertably black and white, more thought reveals a grey, uncertain middle ground. For a while this led to analysis-paralysis as I tried to understand all the permutations of a question, but now I'm quicker at evaluating the grey area.

So yeah, most things are still black and white but I can compromise if the grey middle ground seems valid.

I have definite all or nothing approach to things, generally not very useful, in fact quite disabling in most areas of life.

Something either is or it is not and that's how it works for me 99% of the time.

I voted yes, though I'm not 100% sure I agree.

What I DO definitely noticed is that I need a REASON for just about everything! I need to know why a thing is done before I can do it; why does a thing do something; why must I do things in the way described to me...?

I hate poor logic, and hate being asked to do something that makes no sense or is genuinely stupid. HOWEVER, if what I think is wrong is proven incorrect by someone telling me WHY I need to do this or that, I'm happy to know the truth.

That's why I voted YES.

No, I don't think in black and white. In fact, I think in the opposite manner--everything's a grey area. I guess this is not very aspie-like?

I used to think of all issues, especially moral ones, in very black-and-white terms. However, that changed as I got older. Now, I reject the idea of absolute morality and question the possibility of absolute knowledge. To me, most things are gray.

I actually have trouble thinking in terms of black and white when a situation calls for it. I can decide 100 per cent on one position, which is a rare thing though, and hold my views on it in the face of arguments against it - but I can't shut out facts that speak against it and cannot help but deny that this is supposed to be the ultimate truth. It can only be my truth, because I accept my doubts and such.

I'm thinking in all shades of grey, but only ever in grey. I talked about this with my therapist last week by the way, it's cool that this question appears on here now.

This topic title reminds me about what I read about the borderline personality disorder. My friend said he felt so too when I asked him. It's said that people who have a borderline personality disorder tend to think a lot more in terms of black and white than people without this personality. I wonder whether this is true on the great scale and whether there is a connection concerning this aspect to autism?

Only gray areas I can see are the ones that have been shown to me by my mother and other people.

I think in what I know as binary. Its either on or off; but therein, combinations of on+on+off= or off+off+on= give me a sort of insight or a grey area into things. Yes I see what I understand to be the truth, but take a slighter broader view as a result; but given the facts, I still tend to resort to my binary outlook.

giaam took the words right outta my mouth. Word to the above.

The meaning of 'black and white' thinking in the context of BPD is not consistent with the thinking that those in this thread who do claim to think in black and white seem to be describing. Note that 'black and white thinking' and 'thinking in black and white' are actually different phrases and I submit that they actually describe different things.

In BPD 'black and white thinking' refers to an extreme (and very unstable) thought set where people are either all good or all bad, correlated to the last interaction with that person. Thus if you did not think person X rejected you lately they are perfect, and if they failed in some way to reassure you, they are evil incarnate and no doubt responsible for every ill in your past, present and future, including and not limited to naval fluff and chewing gum left on public sidewalks.

Although I would usually hesitate to speak for others, I do not see BPD 'black and white thinking' as an autistic trait and believe the superficial appearance of any similarity (to the 'thinking in black and white' that may be associated with AS) derives from a similarity of the description (ie black and white thinking versus thinking in black and white). My own understanding of the comments of other posters is that black and white thinking seen in BPD is very distinct from what some posters have self-identified as their own tendency to think in black and white.

Shades of Grey.

When it comes to morality, I know now that there is no absolute good or evil attainable by any human being, and I know not to expect that from anyone. However, I still see emotions as solid state... while I don't pair emotions in duality form, I have to classify a person's emotions based on certain parameters, i.e. a person is "happy", "sad", "angry", etc... I try not to do these classifications in other people, however, as I believe each person to have their own emotional system that may or may not be similar to other people. For example, I classify my emotions differently than is the normal, and as each person is unique, each person must have their own unique set of emotions...

I consider myself to only have one of 4 different emotions in any situation (aside from a non-emotional response). The first two (also the most common) are easily classifiable as humor and frustration, but the other two are rarer and much harder to decipher than that. One of them is a feeling of inner peace of sorts, a supreme contentment if you will (although not expressly happy); I may have felt this emotion only three times before in my life, two of which involve getting close to certain women that I've had feelings for over the years. The other one is much more an analogue of helplessness, invoked in cases such as when a defenseless person is kicked when he's down, and I can't do anything about it.

Regardless,

I like things to be black or white, no in between stuff, something is either one or the other. Unfortunately, there are moments in life where grey seeps its way in, and messes everything up. When something appears to be grey, when before it was black or white, it becomes a bit of a mindmelt.

I say just live and let live when it comes to other people's behavior. I don't judge others on a black and white scale, but I definitely have my own opinions on right and wrong.