Polarized Thinking: Cognitive Distortion

Polarized thinking is a cognitive distortion. In other words, it is an error of reasoning  that we make unnoticed. It makes us misinterpret information and this leads to emotional anxiety.

Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck described cognitive distortions. Usually, they are misunderstandings that lead to emotional problems. This includes irrational fears, grief for no reason, etc. Polarized thinking is one of many forms of cognitive distortions.

Polarized thinking is an extreme simplification of reality. Things are either black or white, good or bad. We do not see differences between extremes. People with this kind of distortion feel comfortable by placing reality between the two extremes. Why is this happening? How can we win it? Let’s see.

Properties of polarized thinking

The most important feature of polarized thinking tends to generalize and encompass different realities within a single class. Therefore, people who think this way often use absolute words like “always”, “never”, “everything” and “nothing”. They do this automatically and place each individual event in one of these boxes.

These extreme groups tend to be very negative. They are used to repeating something negative. People who think this way usually say “I’m doing everything wrong” or “everyone is exploiting me”.

For those whose thinking is polarized, it is as if nuances do not exist. They build their identities largely around these classifications and look for ways to fit everything around them into them. While reality shows they are wrong, they oppose giving up their radicalization.

What causes this cognitive distortion?

In general, polarized thinking is characteristic of those who take on the role of victim in life. No one does this because they want to, but it is an emotional problem caused by bad experiences. Overall, they believe they have experienced bad things they have not earned.

The victim takes on the role of victim of passive circumstances or “fate”. He doesn’t think he has any control over the negative things he’s experienced, nor how he’s handled them. Instead, he believes he is only passively experiencing pain and can do nothing about it.

People who consider themselves victims have not found the tools or resources they could use to overcome many of their challenges. Instead, they develop a polarized way of thinking.

Overcoming polarized thinking

This kind of thinking stems from past unresolved challenges. Winning it means taking a new perspective on the past and present. When you believe you are a victim, you can absolve yourself of responsibility. In order to get over this, you have to accept that you are responsible for what happens to you, and most importantly, how you react to it.

A good way to start is to pay attention to automatic responses and give a mental alert when we say categorical words like “never”, “always”, “all” or “nothing”. After that, we should stop and think about how unreasonable our point was.

In addition, it is important to think about situations where we feel we are victims. Maybe it’s a romantic relationship where we’re unhappy, or a job that feels too demanding.

Is living with it the only option? Or are there other means we are afraid to use? Perhaps polarized thinking is an indicator that we are not taking ourselves seriously enough. Maybe we need time and space to think about what we’re doing.