Binary Bias: What It Is And How It Affects Our Way Of Thinking
Throughout the day, our brain processes a large amount of information, so it has a great capacity for it; However, it does not always do it in the best possible way, and it sometimes requires the use of mental shortcuts in order to label, classify or make quick judgments, so that sometimes we fall into distortions or biases in thinking.
Binary bias is a psychological effect that occurs quite frequently when dichotomizing a set of data to which people are exposed in their daily lives, so that the classification of said data would be reduced to only two categories when In reality there would be the possibility of taking into account a wide range of different categories.
In this article we will explain in greater detail What is such an interesting psychological phenomenon like binary bias?, and for this we will also present some everyday examples in which this bias could be present; However, first it is preferable to briefly explain why cognitive biases occur.
According to research carried out for years by psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, when it comes to processing information, people very often tend to distort that information, and this phenomenon is known as cognitive bias.
Cognitive biases would be those that cause a deviation from rational and logical thinking from reality when processing information. These biases can lead people to give different importance to facts that have the same nature and could be detected when errors appear in judgment or reasoning. Likewise, cognitive biases can arise for various reasons: due to memory limitations, the need to act quickly, a lack of common sense or having to process too much information simultaneously.
Besides, People tend to process information from two different systems On the one hand, there is system 1, which is responsible for processing information in an intuitive and fast way; On the other hand, system 2 would be the one that allows people to process information in a more reflective and logical way, although it requires more time to process it than system 1.
Sometimes, not having the necessary time, we tend to use system 1 to process the information; However, although it can help us succeed in many cases, it is also inevitable that this causes a series of cognitive biases, such as binary bias. Many times the use of system 1 is justified when making decisions due to the requirements of the circumstances in which we find ourselves.
The problem occurs when we tend to use this system out of habit. in important moments when making relevant decisions would require the use of a more reflective and logical way of thinking, as occurs when using system 2 of thought. Nowadays we are encountering this problem more and more, since people are so used to constantly processing information quickly and automatically through electronic devices, which is why they have lost patience and the desire to think differently. things stopped.
Now that we have seen some of the possible causes why cognitive biases occur quite frequently in people’s daily lives, we are going to proceed to explain in greater detail what it consists of. the central topic of this article, binary bias
What is binary bias?
Although people normally have an image of our species as reflective, rational and intelligent beings, it could be said that this is a half-truth, since we have a strong tendency to use an economizing mode of thinking, by not taking the time to do so. necessary time required to use system 2 of thinking (logical and reflective) and we resort more to system 1 (intuitive and fast). In this way we process information quickly and thus We quickly reach conclusions and this is something we usually do automatically
This mode of rapid thinking has had an important function for human beings if we go back to our most primitive ancestors, since it allowed them the possibility of surviving the environment thanks to making quick decisions in moments when it was a matter of life or death act. However, this quick and intuitive thinking today may be resorting to more than it should, thus succumbing to a series of cognitive biases (e.g., confirmation bias, illusory superiority bias, anchoring bias, binary, etc.).
Binary bias could be defined as that psychological effect that occurs when a person tends to a set of data to which they are exposed in their daily life, so that the classification of said data would be reduced to only two categories when in reality there would be the possibility of taking into account a wide range of different categories. This bias can lead people to see their environment in a very simplistic way and, sometimes, within somewhat negative categories.
Furthermore, the negative bias is not reduced to situations in which, in order to save time, we resort to the use of system 1 of thinking, fast and intuitive, but in the case of this bias we are referring to the tendency that many people have at the time. to process information in a way that sorts it between two categories.
Some examples of binary bias would be the tendency of some people to classify things as good or bad, to believe that within a certain area of life everything is true or everything is false, to think that there is only success or failure to think that there are only two different options, to believe that everything is white or everything is black, forgetting that in reality there is a wide range of grays that are more similar to reality.
Similarity between binary bias and dichotomous thinking according to Beck
The way of thinking produced by the binary bias is quite similar to the way some patients see things, as Aaron Beck discovered in his research with the patients who came to his consultation and who served as help for the development of the therapy. cognitive for depression.
Beck pointed out in his day that You have to change the way of thinking in absolute terms, in terms of all or nothing good or bad, for a more flexible and rational way of thinking, since it will be the only way to alleviate the psychological discomfort caused by that absolutist, dichotomous or polarized thinking that can become somewhat pessimistic.
On the other hand, it is also important to learn to tolerate ambiguity and, by having more rational and flexible thinking, observe the intermediate terms that exist between those two opposite poles that were not seen before having tried to analyze things with the necessary time. . It is true that this is not easy, especially on those occasions when this way of thinking is related to some type of mental disorder such as depression, making it necessary to go to a specialist so that they can provide help.
However, in those cases in which there is no associated psychological discomfort, one could try to resort more often to more critical and rational thinking, especially when making important decisions. To do this, it is recommended that we be curious, rational and critical, that we have an open mind to what is presented to us and that we avoid seeing only two opposite options when in reality we have a wide range of possibilities.
How might binary bias influence social media and reviews?
As we have seen previously, binary bias can have repercussions in a wide variety of contexts and situations in everyday life, and it has been observed through some research that it also influences the digital world, as occurs in social networks and in the reviews that made by customers of some businesses.
In this type of scenario, what happens is that our brain receives a constant bombardment of information, so it does not have the time necessary to analyze it in an analytical, critical and rational way. Therefore, it is quite common for the binary bias to occur here and everything is seen as true or false, good or bad, interesting or tedious, etc. It is also common that on social networks, if you look at the comments regarding a topic or publication, you will find a polarity of opinions
On the other hand, there are studies that have investigated the relevance of binary bias in the way people evaluate customer reviews of a business. When people look at other customers’ reviews of a business, they tend to see the reviews from a polarized or dichotomous perspective, considering, for example, 4 and 5 star ratings as positive and 1 and 2 star ratings as negative. .
However, in these studies the researchers found that people were not able to distinguish sufficiently the difference between the most extreme ratings (1 and 5 stars) and the least extreme (2 and 4 stars) Likewise, it is quite common that people tend to rate from the extremes, seeing things through a binary bias; That is, with 5 stars when they are satisfied and with 1 when they did not like the product purchased or the experience they had, without there being a middle ground.
