How to practice nuanced thinking and avoid polarized thinking - Ness Labs (2024)

Polarized Thinking is the enemy of a constructive debate, and always having a black or white approach on a topic, thinking in terms of right or wrong, good or bad, always or never, does not make for anything productive or worthwhile. This approach splits the topic and makes it an all-or-nothing deal.

Nuanced Thinking acknowledges the grey areas and complexities of the diverse point of views and perceptions of reality. It does not fall into the pitfalls of ‘You are absolutely wrong’ or ‘I am a complete failure’.

1. Observe your automatic responses, reactions and reflex actions, which may be a clue to your ingrained belief patterns.
2. Take care of the false dichotomies that plague our thinking, bracketing us into an illusion of having just a limited set of options.
3. Do not over-generalize and assume that a small sample group represents the entire population.