Black and white thinking?

Post Reply New Topic

Supposedly, autistic people are prone to black-and-white thinking than NTs are.

Based on my experiences with the autistic community so far, including both Wrong Planet and the in-person support groups I attend, I have not noticed autistic people being more prone to black-and-white thinking than most NTs are.

What I've noticed is that most people in general tend to be prone to black-and-white thinking, and that moving beyond black-and-white thinking requires a certain kind of intellectual sophistication that some people develop and others don't.

But, as far as I can tell, most of the people who post here on WP, even the most of the more severely disabled people here, do seem to have the ability to move beyond black-and-white thinking, at least most of the time, though they may revert to black-and-white thinking on issues that are especially emotionally charged. Ditto for most of the people at the support groups I attend, and ditto for most people I've known in general.

Perhaps there are certain kinds of black-and-white thinking that autistic people are more prone to than NTs?

Yes, I'm not 100% clear on what black-and-white thinking is either. I'd like to see some examples on what sort of things an autistic may typically think in black-and-white about versus what an NT may typically think in black-and-white about.

I think they are talking about being adherence to the rules and taking things literal. That is black and white thinking. Also difficulty seeing things from another perspective and also an autistic person getting an idea in their head and then they don't change it because they believe they are right.

The problem with "black and white thinking" is this is a ambiguous term. It means different things in different situations.

My thoughts loose nuance when I am over-tired, which was the situation for years.

When I read about B&W thinking, I thought that's my sister! *not* me. But then one thing came to mind for me: At work Sales folks will "spin" issues and although I accept they do that, I think to myself: Liars. And then another thing: somebody said he was still a little hung over when he went out the next morning in his car. My thoughts were screaming DUI, DUI - I "teased" him about it and he said he didn't drive far. I thought, I don't care how far you drove: DUI. Then today my husband said that a text "10 min" means ETA 10 min, always... and I pointed out he told me two weeks ago that text "10 min" means leaving in 10 min... I said his communication was unreliable. Was I supposed to say sometimes confusing or ambiguous? Perhaps the more stressed I am the more B&W I seem --- I know better, but am not feeling it.

I disagree. From my experiences, here and elsewhere, people on the spectrum are at least more prone to "all-or-nothing" thinking, which is a variant of black-and-white thinking. I'm definitely like this myself, but it doesn't have to be a hindrance or a bad thing. You can use it to your advantage. For instance, in certain areas I can have incredible discipline when I'm engaged with the "all" part of all-or-nothing thinking, but on the flip side, if I'm not, I tend to default to the "nothing" part.

For instance, if I want to cut down on consuming certain unhealthy foods or drinks, I only tend to remain successful if I cut them out completely, and when I decide to do that, I find it relatively easy to abstain. If I try to have them in moderation instead, a couple of weeks later, I tend to end up back where I started and just consuming whatever food or drink I please.

In an old thread on this same topic:

Judging by the examples in this thread, I don't think I am too much of a black-and-white thinker. I am on some things sometimes, but mostly I will see the grey areas in things.

The phrase "black and white" is appropriate when using a graphics metaphor. When working with graphics it is the lowest resolution one can get. As one increases resolution through gray scale to color, more and more information is obtained about a particular pixel.

Returning to the realm of human perception, there are some that are limited in their ability to see greater resolution and there are some for whom the processing of greater information produces too much anxiety.

Some may hold to a binary view in order to provide the comfort of certainty. However, this also tends toward confrontation with whoever selects an opposite view. Those who (for whatever reason) do not do well with a higher resolution view of life, may be avoided and those who have a greater view can be sought out for their interesting observations.

I can see this phenomena impacting on Aspergers to the extent that anxiety may not be dealt with well and result in things like selective mutism.

At least for me, black and white thinking seems to be, as previously described, an "all or nothing" mindset. If something isn't good, it's bad. If someone doesn't like you, they hate you. I don't know if that's an autism thing or not, though. It may just be for those who are more prone to anxiety and who have a strong desire to be a part of a larger group.

I believe OCD and anxiety disorders are also prone to black and white thinking. People with trauma can also have it too.


One of my black and white thinkings I had as a child was if I was rude on accident, I was a terrible person so I had to not do that behavior again or else I am a bad person if I keep doing it. I think that also made me get better social skills and be a better person because of that black and white thinking. If I make a mistake or mess up or get someone upset, I had to say sorry because bad people don't say sorry. I had rules for myself I had to follow. If someone else didn't follow them, I thought they were bad people. I took movies too seriously.

I am pretty sure people with self esteem issues are also prone to black and white thinking.

I think if I hadn't cared what other people thought of me, I wouldn't have improved as a person and if I lacked black and white thinking, I wouldn't have improved. Kids are brutally honest and will tell you what they think of you so it pushed me to that B&W thinking. Honestly I think I was already B&W and it wasn't other kids that made me do it. I would have done it anyway but in other things. If I had been more aspie, I don't think I would have cared what others thought of me because I wouldn't have understood and I would have thought it was their problem and not mine and that I was fine and they were the strange ones and I don't need them, I would have lacked self awareness. But I think I would have had better self esteem too. I think mild aspies are more prone to depression and anxiety and self esteem issues because of our self awareness of how different we are so other kids opinions affect us and they remind us of how different we are with their opinion.

I notice most NTs and other humans do B&W thinking like "I am poor and I worked my way out of it, everyone else can too and those who do not choose to be poor." I see this mentality a lot online. And people always assume everyone else has the same situation as them. "I am able to save money, other people don't save because they are poor at their finances and need to stop eating out and going on trips and buying things they don't need." They Assume that is what others are doing with their money when in fact they don't buy anything at all and they never go out and they still live paycheck to paycheck. This is the common B&W thinking I see in the human population.

Probably most ASD B+W literature is regarding children.