Dichotomous thinking

Imagine you're playing a game where everything is either black or white, and there's no in-between. You might think that everything is either good or bad, smart or dumb, right or wrong. This is called dichotomous thinking.

Instead of looking at things on a spectrum, with shades of gray in between, you only see two extremes. This can make it hard to understand that people can have different opinions or perspectives that are also valid, even if they're not the same as yours.

Dichotomous thinking can make it hard to see the complexity and nuances of the world around us. It can also make it hard to communicate with others who have different ideas, because you might see them as wholly good or wholly bad instead of somewhere in between.

That's why it's important to try to see things as more than just black and white, and to be open to different ideas and perspectives.