Binary Reasoning
Friday, July 25th, 2008I’ve observed something that’s probably been around as long as humans have walked the Earth. Most people are either unable or not willing to see matters in the broad spectrum of components that make them up. In a simpler form, it’s seeing things as good or bad, black or white, republican or democrat, this side or that side.
During this presidential race I’ve noticed that exploiting this weakness is a tactic some folks, often employed in the media, use to sway voters away from certain candidates. Obama has been the target of this at times, where it is believed that if he can be linked in some way to a person who is crazy, racist, or perhaps a radical Muslim, that he himself must also possess those same characteristics, while at the same time doing a remarkably good job at keeping them concealed.
One of the funniest examples of this is a chain e-mail I received where the author felt like if he kept capitalizing Obama’s middle name – HUSSEIN that somehow people would make a connection to him either being related to Saddam Hussein or radical Muslims, no matter how ridiculous the idea is. Are people really that stupid? I keep asking myself that question as if somehow continuing to ask it will change the answer to something other than yes.
Binary thinking is one of the root causes of prejudice and discrimination. After a person experiences two or three instances of a person exhibiting a certain behavior that also has some prominent but unrelated trait, they begin to imagine that ALL persons who carry that trait will also exhibit that same behavior.
Is binary reasoning a direct result of survival instinct?