Deterministic Thinking
Deterministic thinking is often used to simplify things into “black or white” that are more appropriately “shades of grey.” For example, when we ask “Is he a good person?”, I assume most of us answer with “Yes.” or “No.” How “good” someone is would more appropriately be modeled on a scale of zero to ten or, better still, as a multi-dimensional model. A deterministic thinker reduces it to “good” or “bad” with nothing in between.
Another example is gender. Our society divides us into two distinct categories, but sex is not binary. Male and female just represent two sides of a broad spectrum of type. It’s a lot more complex than what you might imagine. We are all plotted somewhere in a spectrum of two types. You could be 80% women, and 20% men. Also, there are those who fall in the middle of a range. Gender is a continuum rather than an either/or proposition.
A black-and-white thinker wastes their time by discussing other topics such as introvert vs. extrovert or regulation vs. deregulation. I guess this is because it’s easy to be at the edge of a see-saw: you don’t have to balance. Whereas, it’s difficult to be somewhere in the middle because you constantly need to keep your balance. Sustaining doubt is harder work than sliding into certainty.
Deterministic thinking is also used as an excuse. Some people reject to become vegan because they cannot go 100% when they can just consume diary products moderately.