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Learning How 'all or nothing' thinking makes complicated realties impossible to understand "Close examination of the arguments made by climate change deniers reveals the same mistake made over and over again. That mistake is the cognitive error known as black-and-white thinking, also called dichotomous and all-or-none thinking. Black-and-white thinking is a source of dysfunction in mental health, relationships – and politics. "People are often susceptible to it because in many areas of life, dichotomous thinking does something helpful: It simplifies the world. "Binaries are easy to handle because there are only two possibilities to consider. When people face a spectrum of possibilities and nuance, they have to exert more mental effort. But when that spectrum is polarized into pairs of opposites, choices are clear and dramatic. "This mental labor-saving device is practical in many everyday situations, but it is a poor tool for understanding complicated realities – and the climate is complicated." - Jeremy Shapiro Ph.D. Article: The Thinking Error That Makes People Susceptible to Climate Change Denial
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