what exactly is black and white thinking?

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i keep on hearing that we aspies have black and white thinking. i think i have that too. is it good or bad? do most neurotypicals have black and white thinking? actually what is black and white thinking by the way? can it be overcomed?

I believe it's when you think in absolutes, sort of all or nothing and seeing the world in extremes.

Examples:
If you're not a genius you're a moron
If you're not skinny you're fat
If it's not strong it's weak

I have a good personal example...I just spent about 3 months working my tail off to re-finish my deck. When it was finished, I could see that it looked great, at the very least it looked much much better than it had (which was my goal)...but being that it wasn't absolutely perfect, I feel like my project was a complete failure. I'm disappointed in it, and feel like it was a waste of time. Every single person who has seen it said that it looked great, but one of these people pointed out a mistake so now, when I think of peoples opinions of the work I did, the only one I can remember is the person who pointed out the mistake.

Actually sociopaths think in extreme(black/white) terms. That's why they pretend to be laid back until something doesn't go their way, and then they flip out on you. lol

I have AS, but I don't think in extreme terms about everything. I'm moderate in many ways.

Ain't no half-steppin' in black and white thinking.
Either you're my friend or you're not. No wishy-washiness.
Either you're learning to play guitat like a pro or you're not.
Either you sh*t or get off the pot. No exceptions.

I think NTs actually are wishy-washy with their behaviour and it's the norm with them, and it's probably why they avoid us. We're too intimidating. Being held up to a standard unnerves them. They really hardly ever mean what they say so they head for the hills when they see "black & white thinking man" come around.

I have it a bit, but mostly just when I'm angry or emotionally overwhelmed.

It's thinking in absolutes.

But also the autistic high sense of justice is a bit a black-and-white thinking.
Because nearly no behaviour is totally evil or totally good and they all have their reasons.

People with AS just say what they're really thinking much more than NTs. I see how the lack of fakeness could seem like extreme thinking to NTs even though it's often moderate reasoning.

Justice isn't about good and evil. It's about crime and punishment.

There are many examples of black and white thinking amongst NT

Motorcycles- harley or nothing
Music- heavy metal or nothing
Food- vegetarian or nothing
Food-none of that foreign s**t
Cars- buyers often stick to the same manufacturer for a lifetime
Women-must have big boobies
Clothing- latest fashions or nothing
Republican Democrat
Loss Gain
Pleasure Pain
It all gets a bit the same
Esp. when you get this insane

I don't normally have black and white thinking any more, I try to see the shades of grey in a lot of situations now. On WP I used to have black and white thinking a lot, like if someone started a thread asking something like ''do a lot of Aspies like water?'', I immediately thought it's implying that all NTs are the opposite they all hate water, or if a thread was asking ''are Aspies generally good spellers'' I used to think it implied that all NTs are atrocious spellers.

Sometimes NTs can be black and white thinkers with me. Like last winter I said, ''oh I wish it wasn't so cold'', and an NT said, ''well you can't expect it to be really hot in the middle of January, can you?'' and I was like, ''no, I didn't mean that, I just wish it wasn't freezing, maybe just about 5 or 6 degrees C would be better, if it was, like 22 C in the middle of January, I would be worrying anyway.''

Tony Attwood writes, it's a form of black/white thinking and I was even asked that in my diagnostic interview, because of the black/white thinking of autistics.

I agree with you that it's very black and white. I'm just saying it's not about good and evil. A good person can commit a crime that's not evil and require punishment.

Autistics have very often their "own rules" and putting them absolute.

A lot of you seem to be confused about black and white thinking.

Black and white thinking is all or nothing. As someone explained above, it's you're either a genius or stupid, super skinny or super fat, a slut or a virgin, you're my best friend or you're my ultimate enemy.
It's basically no middle ground, for example, your boyfriend asked you to take the trash out, and you might think OH GOD HE HATES ME BECAUSE I DIDN'T DO IT! or HE LOVES ME BECAUSE I TOOK THE TRASH OUT, there's no possible thought of "He'll still love me if I don't take the trash out, he'll just be annoyed because he has to do it himself"

"X" is bad! "Y" is good!

He's mean! She's nice!

I only like _________! If it's _________, I hate it!

l am a pretty black and white NT. l think it''s common among NTs too.

A lot of people who are narrow in their thinking actually try to embrace a more accepting view of many things and avoid "labeling" and anything else that might be discriminatory. l think some of them believe they're really becoming less black and white that way but usually they can still only process what they think is "right".

l dunno, l think there are a few different issues that lead to black and white thinking, one being an inability to see something from another person's perspective, which l also see quite frequently in NTs but is described as an autistic trait(lack of TOM).

For myself l would say that l don't lack TOM and the reason that my thinking can be so narrow is because l see hoe many things in llife are interrelated to each other. Even though l am aware of the gray area people see, l don't always like to acknowledge it because l like to reduce people and concepts down to their lowest common denominator.

Most of the types who truly can't see relations between seemingly unrelated things are more likely to to call someone who ignores the gray area ignorant, most of them later figure out how much more clearly defined an related most of the problems and other issues people have are through life experience, and then become more restricted in their thinking.

Lack of TOM really varies across WP IME and l would say that it isnt the only thing that contributes to narrow thinking here. l see more people with AS who are able to make connections between things and analyze new information pretty thoroughly.

Of course a person's mind is going to seem narrow when they are able to categorize and label so well but it usually takes a more open mind or at least a mind that is willing to see possibilities to make these connections in the first place.