The Pandemic of Black and White Thinking in a Post Truth Society

Darlings. Hey, this is Dr. Nicole. How are you doing? I just wanted to check in and say hey. And what I actually wanted to talk about with you today is dichotomous thinking, otherwise known as splitting, otherwise known as black and white thinking. This can show up a lot in anxiety. We see this in borderline personality disorder and we see this quite often in trauma. So if you feel like you may deal with dichotomous thinking, splitting, black or white thinking, or if you deal with a loved one or a friend that engages in this type of thinking pattern, this is the post, this is the content for you. This came onto my mind recently because I was dealing with some of this type of thinking myself is I was having a conversation, it was about politics and this person was expressing views that I personally thought were fairly based in nonsense. And so I started to fire back with my own perspectives. And the way that I was thinking about it was more that I am right and you are wrong. And it felt very black and white to me. And thankfully I get to do these types of conversations live with you every week or I talk about them with my team or my patients. And it provides an opportunity to really be a little bit meta and to self reflect. And so I started thinking about how it's not just me that can be fairly black and white, black and white pandemic thinking. It can be, the vaccine is all good, everyone should have it, or the vaccine is terrible, no one should have it like that, black and white, there's no good gray area thinking. Or it could be a conversation about I am completely on board with naturopathic medicine and I refuse to do anything with Western medicine versus I am all western medicine and I would never use anything integratively. So this kind of conversation, this kind of a narrative is out of dichotomous thinking. It's out of splitting, it's out of black and white thinking. So I started to think more about this topic. And today what you're going to get out of this video is I'm going to tell you why this is such a problem in this modern era, why this is such a problem. Right now I'm in my late 30s and I may be more aware of what's going on psychologically. You know, when I was younger I was like playing with unicorns and just goofing off. So that could be part of it. But really, truly we are seeing changes in the way humans are thinking, interacting with and perceiving their environments. And there's a really big pink elephant in this conversation that nobody is talking about that is causing this type of thinking. And I'm going to tell you what that is, and I'm going to tell you what to do about it. What is the antidote? So if you're feeling like you're stuck in this all or nothing black and white conversation, if you feel like there are people in your lives that are very frustrating, that are also in this conversation, then this video is for you and you're going to learn why it's happening and what to do about it. So in order to talk about the neuroscience behind this, we're going to go all the way back to Piaget, a famous psychologist he's known specifically for his two mountains task. And in this two mountains task, you had a diorama of mountains that was created and depending on what side you were standing on, you would have a different view. So in that two mountain study, what they would do is they would have children sit on one side and the researcher on the other. And then the child would look at their view and look at their perspective. They are welcome to wander around. But then they were asked, what am I looking at? By the researcher? So they were asked by the researcher, what do I see? And so in this psychological study, they found that children under 5 years of age would almost always point, point to the picture that represented what they saw on their side. They were unable to have that kind of empathetic cognitive representation of what the other person might see. And then as they got older, we saw developmentally that children were more able to engage in that thinking process of, okay, this is what I see, but what might that person see? Right. So our brains begin by becoming more dichotomous. We have that neurological foundation. And so what I'm going to propose to you is how the modern technology, algorithms are actually capitalizing on that cognitive predisposition and creating a post truth pandemic problem where people are engaging in black and white thinking. And so this is really interesting and it can feed into anxiety because in anxiety, oftentimes we have thoughts like, I'm going to be a failure, I'm an imposter, it's going to go badly. The worst case is going to happen. I was talking with somebody yesterday who was having this type of black and white thinking. She heard a scary sound and she's like, someone's breaking into my house. It was an automatic, it's an all or nothing thinking pattern. And so instead of having black and white thinking patterns that start to imprison you, we can actually get to the root cause of why this may be happening neurologically and how the social algorithms are playing into cultivating this type of brain state and how that may be making you more anxious. So fascinating stuff, right? So we just talked about the two mountains task, and we've established that Piaget has shown that developmentally and neurocognitively that the brain at a younger age tends to not have the ability to see in areas of gray. That's when we get more into formal operational thinking in those younger minds. It's more concrete, black and white dichotomous splitting type thinking. And then as we get older, we have opportunities for that to evolve and change. But sometimes individuals aren't into the more formal operational areas of gray thinking until they hit their 20s. This is what we're seeing in psychology. So, so we know that splitting black and white thinking, dichotomization, that that can occur ironically on a spectrum. So some people, they may be black and white about certain things and able to see in the gray and other things. We saw this in that huge argument, that huge debate with what color is this dress? Is anyone with me? Did you guys see that post? It came out years ago and there's this giant debate of what color is this dress? And people were like on board, like, it's this color. Absolutely not that color. How are you so crazy to think it's that color? And people got really quite politicized over this dress. And so what I'm here to say, what I'm here to propose is that this isn't totally your fault, that you may be in a mind space that creates vulnerability to what the algorithms actually want to do with your brain and, and thus creating more of that dichotomy, more of that black and white, more of that splitting, and more anxiety. So I have some notes here, and what I'm going to tackle with you in the next couple of minutes is what has caused the pandemic of black and white thinking in a post truth society? So I have three reasons for you. So the question is, what has caused this pandemic of black and white thinking in a post truth society? So first we have to talk about what is post truth? And that's a fairly recent emerging conversation. And what post truth is basically talking about is that we have so many different ways of seeing things. There are different objectives to things, that we don't necessarily have a commonality of truth anymore. It's become a lot more relativistic. And so as we get older, things can become more relative. We can see more areas of gray and, and so while that can be good, it can create problems because in a post truth society, we are not able to come to a common the dress is this color, this is good, or this is bad. So splitting or dichotomous thinking in a post truth society. So there are three main things that are going on that could be causing you to be thinking more dichotomously, thus making you more anxious. And there are three things that are going on that make the people around you feel more dichotomous, not be able to see the other side of the mountains on that two mountains task. There are three things that might be happening in your life that my guess is that you might not know about. Okay? So number one is that we know that COVID 19 has created a crisis on a global scale, right? So that's important to know because that impacts the brain, it impacts the way we see the world, it impacts the way that we cope, it impacts the way that we socialize, it impacts the way that we shop. Everything is different. And as the dust is starting to settle on that, we're seeing some changes in the way that the human brain is functioning. Right? So that's one of the reasons, and I'm going to explain to you more about this in a minute. But the second is that people are getting the majority of their news and information from online sources. So suddenly we are isolated because this pandemic, we're getting information from sources that are online. And these sources aren't intended to create areas of gray. These sources are intended to say, like, I have the answers. These are the answers. This is what you need to think. This is what's going on. Right? And then number three of the three reasons, and we're gonna expand on these in a minute, why the brain is shifting to a more dichotomous type way of thinking, that each individual has a perspective that gets tied into our identity. Have you ever had a conversation with somebody and you start disagreeing on, like, religion or politics, and then suddenly it's less about the conversation, but it becomes more personal. And that's why we have a rule of thumb, no religion, no politics at the dinner table. These are topics that are off the table when it comes to getting together with family and relatives. Is anyone with me? We do not talk about religion or politics at my family dinner table just because it can get so very personal, especially when we're coming at it from more of a dichotomous black and white perspective. Right? So we know that there are these three really huge variables going on. We have a pandemic, we're socially isolated, right? We also are getting the majority of our news from curated online sources and we all have our perspectives and that's really deeply ingrained in, into our sense of identity. And so let's talk about the cast of characters, an ACT method that I created to help us deconstruct why we may have black and white thinking, why we may have anxiety. The ACT method's cast of characters tells us what to do about it. So first of all, because of the pandemic, we're socially isolated, right? So we don't have many characters around us in person. And we have this rapidly spreading virus that results in lockdowns. And so we're isolated, we're not hanging out with other people. The people with whom we are hanging out with, we tend to have in our own little bubbles and it can become an echo chamber. Right? Number two is the invisible character of the platform algorithms. So if you've seen the social dilemma, you've probably seen that these algorithms are set up so if I click on something, the algorithm is going to be like, okay, Nicole is interested in this, let's send her more of that. And then we end up having this situation where I had a bubble around me and that bubble is being reinforced and reinforced and, and reinforced with more and more information and it's becoming less fluid and more concrete, right? So I'm not around different types of people. I'm not sitting at restaurants with other people, I'm not going and hanging out and sporting events with other people. We're very socially distanced. And so out of a year plus of that, we have these very small echo chambers. And then we have this social media news outlet bubble that's becoming more and more concrete because it's feeding in an algorithm to reinforce what we're thinking. Right? And then number three is the post Truth piece is that we have a lack of shared reality. And let me read you what I wrote in my notes here, so frequently referred to as post truth era. The aforementioned AI contributes to this by failing to deliver well rounded data, but rather aligns with content we've already consumed, making it a shared human truth of modern events nearly impossible. So I was telling you about how I was having a conversation recently with somebody, we were talking about politics and what their experience is, is they're on one side of those two mountains and they see that side, they get reinforced that side, they're talking to people who see that side. Everything that they're getting fed to them on their Internet in Terms of what's popping up, advertisements, priority videos, YouTube, all of these algorithms are reinforcing that perspective. And then we see more and more and more dichotomization and, and then of course, the identity piece, right? We identify with our beliefs and so suddenly it's not just about a conversation anymore, it's about what it means to be human. And so this person is telling me these things as though they are black and white, 100% fact. And then on the meantime, I'm on the other side of the mountain. I'm in my echo chamber with my people in my small bubble. I'm clicking on different things and I'm getting fed social media and news and all sorts of advertisements that are reinforcing my concrete bubble. Are you with me? You have your bubbles too. And so have you noticed, are your bubbles colliding with other people's bubbles? Are there dichotomous black and white conversations that are going on? And is that black and white then changing the way that your brain sees reality and creating anxiety? Right, so we've identified the problem, we've identified the effects of the problem, and so now what are we going to do? How are we going to transcend? And the T in the act method is the tools for transcendence and there is a solution. And this is what I promised you at the beginning of the video. And I'm going to give you three solutions. And this is really important because when we live in a post truth society, when there isn't a universal truth, we can't keep coming at each other, slamming our concrete bubbles into each other. That isn't going to create peace and calm and joy and life and love for everybody. It's going to create greater amounts of strife and so stress. So it's up to us to do these three things. And starting with you, starting right now, you can start to make a hugely profound difference so that you can get up out of the seat that the world has put you in so that you don't just see this side of the mountain that you can actually walk around and get objective data and create your own conclusion instead of one that has been curated for you. And that will free your soul, it will free your mind, it will free your politics, it will free your community. Right, so let's talk about those three steps. So the tools for transcendence, number one is the antidote to social isolation is reconnection. The antidote to social isolation is reconnect. And we're coming out of social distancing, we're coming out of a pandemic where we couldn't be with people. We are coming back into the world. And so when you return to the world, when you return to relationships, try to return to relationships that are outside of your echo chamber. Have conversations with people that may have different perspectives with you and just learn about what they've been hearing, learn about the data they've been given. So if we go back to Piaget's two mountain task, and I sit on one side and I see two mountains and a little sheep, and you're on the other side and you see one big mountain and a table, you can tell me about what you see and I can listen and hear you and share what I see. And even though what you see may not be what I see, you can acknowledge that I see what I see and I can acknowledge that you see what you see. And that begins the conversation about post truth reality. And it gets us out of those fundamental concrete bubbles, right? So that's just number one. So antidote social isolation with reconnection. Connect with people you trust, connect with people outside of your bubbles, get fresh perspectives and listen. Number two is disrupt the invisible algorithm. You, you are in an algorithm. I'm in an algorithm. The social media giants, the news giants, have created AI to put us in an algorithm. Watch the social dilemma. It's not a perfect documentary, but it is definitely good data, right? Watch it. If you want to interrupt your algorithm, if you want to make that concrete bubble just a little less concrete and a little more bubble, start clicking on three different social media platforms that says something different than what you believe or something that's outside of your area of focus, something that's different. You're going to confuse the AI and then suddenly you're going to get fed information that may be different from what you were being fed before. And you might learn something, you might learn that you don't like it, you may learn that they are wrong. But whatever you're doing is you're disrupting the algorithm that's telling you how to think and is making your brain more black and white, dichotomous and splitting it. And the goal is to get out of that and take your control back, thus taking back your freedom. Right? Number three, identify unique perspectives. So let me. Well, let me read you what I have written here. So number one is expand your worldview. We already acknowledged that perspectives are tied to our identity, right? We've already identified that our perspectives are tied to our identity. So our brains are hardwired to defend our beliefs. But if we were to repair the tear in the fabric of humanity in a poster era. It is our collective responsibility to find common threads. So this person that I was talking about at the beginning, I have a really difficult time with this person because his concrete bubble is so on a different planet than my concrete bubble. And the thing that will help to bring together some commonality is even though I don't think he's alright, and I'm willing to concede that I may not be alright, but there are possibilities of common threads. So maybe the common thread is that he cares for people and that he's looking for solutions for people. And I can get on board with that. So then we weave that thread together. So by finding commonalities like, okay, maybe we can't get on board all with the same belief, but I can get on board with these pieces of your belief. And then if we all start to do that, if we start to connect with people out of our bubbles, if we start to disrupt that invisible character algorithm feeding you information, if we start to think, thread together commonalities, we're going to create a tapestry that is post human, post truth that will get us past anxiety, past violence, past fear, past the splitting that's happening in human nature. I don't know about you, but I'm so ready for the world to come together in a new way. Instead of us all pulling apart and instead of it being us versus them. Let's see what kinds of threads of commonality we can find. But the only way that we can find those threads of commonality is to do those three tools for transformation. Get out of your echo chamber, meet different people. Whether it's online, in person, at social events, whatever you need to do. Get new information, connect with new people, have an open ear and an open heart. Consider that maybe your view of the mountain isn't the same view of their mountain, but it's still the same diorama. Okay, and then disrupt the algorithms, click on three different news outlets. Like if you usually watch Fox, try watching npr. If you usually listen to cnn, maybe check out another news source that is valuable and reputable. Just get information, screw up those algorithms, don't let them control you. And then number three is identify unique perspectives. Find those common threads. Okay, so this has been. Dr. Nicole. We've been talking about black and white thinking and I took a little bit of a different angle on it today. You can find tons of information about black and white thinking in cbt, which is cognitive behavioral therapy. Linehan talks about it quite a lot in dialectical Behavioral therapy or dbt. There's tools that can help you get past this black and white thinking. But I really think that having a conversation about the relevant events that are creating this phenomenon are so important that they should be considered in conjunction with the tools that you use. And I have tools for you that you can use. We have a one week Anxiety Freedom Challenge where I give you eight videos, a beautiful booklet, emails to walk you through it. You get into a Facebook group where you can interact with me and my team, ask questions. It's all totally free. I have the tools for you. And so I urge you and just consider checking it out. We'll make sure that there's a link that's in the link tree. You just go into my bio, my Instagram, click the link tree. Or you could go to Dr. Nicole Cain and you can click on the free gifts on the top and the one way challenge is there. So while you're doing that challenge though, make sure that you listen to this video. We're going to have a blog, read the blog because we want to be able to identify the cause of your black and white thinking. It may not be your fault. You are living in a world that wants you to have black and white thinking and you can triumph beyond that. Thank you so much for watching. It's been great to see you guys here. I honor you, I love you, I respect you, and I'll be back next week. This is Dr. Nicole. If this video is valuable for you, give it a heart, give it a like. And if you have a hanker and share it with somebody else who might value it, it helps with the algorithm because. Right. We're in algorithms. And so if you have a hanker and to get the irony in me asking you to adjust your algorithm by sharing this video, I see the irony and I see you and I love you and that'd be great. All right, honeys, thank you so much. I will talk with you next week.