Black and White Thinking

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"Black and White" thinking is not really a AS thing, NTs do it all the time as well, it's just that ASers tend to be more self-conscious about it, just for the record.

It may not actually be you, being introspective is good but you have to outrospect (look at others characters) as well, being completely introspective leads to being psychologically manipulated on the introspecters part.



That's a red flag on your teammates part, it shows a "all talk, no action" attitude, if they can't back it up then they are the ones in the wrong, it doesn't matter how many of them there are. It's just a figurative "circle jerk", back in history the majority of people thought the earth was flat, did that make them right? Nope, they were proven wrong.



That's just "stupid speak" as I like to call it, if they can't back themselves up and you can, then they are clearly wrong.



Never accept unproven bizarre logic.



Unfortunately you may, but you should try to "squeeze" the stupid from them, it's the facts vs their subjective opinion. The facts always triumph over subjective irrationality based on nothing but personal opinion.



I don't think it is, I think you're more "locked" up in introspection and self-doubt, if a fool tells you you are the "fool" are you going to believe the clown? I don't think so.



A real example is the belief on the "inherent goodness of all humans" that may come from someone with a extremely good life, they believe that because their life was good, everyone elses must be too, they completely ignore that peoples lives are completely diverse and different from their own and infact range anywhere from "extroidinarily good" to "complete crap".

I get what you're saying. Usually I'm not so uncertain about things like this, but over this last year I've had to face the fact that a lot of the things I used to blame on other people just being weird or mean for the sake of it were actually, at least in part, due to misunderstandings or miscommunications on my part due to things like not correctly reading nonverbal cues or misunderstanding social situations or just flat not communicating effectively. It's caused me to question myself and my own assumptions more and more.

It's starting to look like this particular issue will be shunted to someone else, so it'll be out of my hands, but I'll still get to sit in the company president's "come to Jesus" meeting when it all finally blows up in their faces and say, "I told you so!" It wouldn't be the first time. Right now, I'm consoling myself with the idea that I start my graduate program in a few months and will likely not be working here after the first of the year, anyway.

Regards,

Patricia

QFT

When you want to start a war, exterminate a race of people, or just simply spread a lot of hate; black and white thinking is your most effective weapon

A strong sense of integrity, staying true to yourself, and playing with a full deck are the dynamics required to resist generalized stupidity and incompetence. Without these attributes, one may easily succumb to social conditioning, indoctrination, propaganda and conformity within the status quo herd mentality. "Don't think, just do what we do and you'll be fine." Sometimes it's necessary to resist the status quo and go with no-compromise [black & white thinking]. This is especially true where the health and well-being of yourself and family members are concerned...and where abiding by the status quo would neutralize your ability to protect them, or yourself.

It's generally not such a critical issue in the workplace.

Rather than spending your time worrying about how to convince these people their priorities are skewed...it is suggested that you take a different course. As your common sense has led you to an alternate conclusion, let them know they haven't swayed you and you remain firmly opposed to their point of view, know it won't work, and then refuse to argue the point any further. On your own, follow their thinking to its logical end. Foresee the implications. Deal with the consequences. Figure out a remedy should their plan fail. If necessary, write it out as a proposal and be ready to submit it at the appropriate time.

This kind of initiative will eventually earn you the respect and admiration you deserve for retaining common sense, when all about you are losing theirs. Just because they've been conditioned to accept an orange sky is no reason for you to forget the sky is supposed to be blue. By having the courage and confidence to foresee a potential disaster and plan ahead to deal with it immediately, you will prove yourself a valuable employee with insight, intelligence, and the capacity to lead.

I have a tendency toward black and white thinking, so through the years i've been trying really hard to broaden my understanding of things. I think the black-and-white thinking is maybe referring to a need for order. Everything needs to be categorized neatly as this or that so that the world makes sense. At least, that's how i have a tendency to think. Things get really confusing and it makes things so much harder for me to understand when i can't mentally categorize them. When somethings is, instead, just a COMPLICATED issue, it adds to all the chaos in my mind unless i can analyze it find some way to understand it as a logical system.

i think the realm of social etiquette is where is see a good deal of all-or-nothing thinking come into play. (ex.: finally grasping an unspoken social rule in one situation---then applying it to just about every social situation i encounter. it's difficult to gauge what's happening and adjust, so i fall back on whatever feels safe.)

i don't know, though. i don't think the desire for consistency is always such a terrible thing. if people say one thing, yet do another--especially on a systemic or organizational level---i think it can be a red flag that there is a problem. i tend to like consistency in those matters. when it doesn't exist, i tend to point it out.

i think that's why so many people on the spectrum (and/or NLD's) tend to be whistle blowers. abuses tend to go against stated policy. the actual behavior is highly inconsistent with the the stated core values (and often unjust.) it can be difficult to live with such things.

I do think that there is a lot of black and white thinking in the NT world. Could it be that whether or not a person thinks in black and white has more to do with right/left-brainedness than with the NT/autistic issue? That scenario would allow for greater extremes of both black and white thinking and greyscale thinking amongst autistic people than NT people as we have greater differences between our faculties.

I think it has a lot to do with personal experience. The "smaller" your world, the easier it is to see things in black and white.

Homogeneous societies can get away with things like "Morals" classes because the culture is tight knit and most of the citizens can agree on absolutes like "right" and "wrong". When a society becomes heterogeneous (like the U.S.) then you don't have the luxury of a one-size-fits-all morality. If U.S. schools tried to make a morals class part of the high school curriculum, the ACLU would step in to shut it down. Even if it seems like a good idea, the last thing you want in a heterogeneous society is a small group of government bureaucrats dictating what your kids should believe and how your kids should behave.

This is where my tendency for all-or-nothing thinking comes into play as well. The social realm and any space that involves immediate real-time processing. It's not that my mind is resistant to open thought in general but rather sudden shifts in thought without relaying a path of how it goes from one idea to the next. My brain demands a very clear road-map or it becomes completely lost. ... or at least lost until it can construct a new map.

This is one of the reasons criticisms are difficult. The person criticizing, if harsh, will always encounter a brick wall from my side. My mind will perceive a threat and become utterly inflexible. It will often take hours to days to get through. You may say potAto but my mind will insist on saying potato without acknowledging that both can exist... if only for a little while. Then it, usually, happily embraces the dualism. It just takes time to allow the ideas and concepts to re-map. The re-mapping is often constructed by replaying the situation and suggestions over-and-over again side-by-side with my own and then, hopefully, coming to some level of thought evolution.

If the person trying to have a conversation with me does not know this or refuses to allow my thought process to catch up trouble ensues. My mind will start to shut down and sensory input from my surrounding area becomes confused leaving me feeling very lost and completely helpless. At this point any attempts to function at a productive level of effectiveness in a work or social environment become moot. It also hinders my ability to replay the situation or suggestion accurately at a later time making it more difficult for my mind to listen and adapt.

one example of my B&W thinking is: Failure or Success. If i do not succeed 100% then i have failed 100% (i fail much more than i succeed)

Sink or Swim

Day or Night

Wet or Dry

to me there is no in between

Or maybe AS people's black and white thinking is easier picke dup by NTs. I'm accused of black and white thinking all the time.

I used to be very black and white when I was younger. But, in college, I learned that people have all sorts of backgrounds and reasons for the things they do. It really helped me become a better person to realize this.

Same. Exposure at Uni really helped.

I know what you mean. It's a bit of a conundrum because I also feel like I can look at things from many aspects and I am comfortable with ambiguity in many areas of life, but people have told me that i have a black and white way of thinking in the past. It's just an all or nothing thing. Since an Aspie usually thinks more logically they could probably come off this way. I think my primary mode of thinking is sort of black and white, I can easily find logical solutions to problems and I don't waste too much time making decisions but I'm very flexible in my thinking when it comes to bigger issues. I think I'm pretty non-judgmental about important things, I've been told this in the past also. I guess black and white/logical thinking is just my primary mode but it doesn't mean I can't be flexible.

when i think the images and people are in color like in real life.

My judgment is absolute. It's either your safe or your out. No in-between.