AUDIOBOOK
About
A groundbreaking and timely book about how evolutionary biology can explain our black-and-white brains, and a lesson in how we can escape the pitfalls of binary thinking.
Several million years ago, natural selection equipped us with binary, black-and-white brains. Though the world was arguably simpler back then, it was in many ways much more dangerous. Not coincidentally, the binary brain was highly adept at detecting risk: the ability to analyze threats and respond to changes in the sensory environment-a drop in temperature, the crack of a branch-was essential to our survival as a species.
Since then, the world has changed but, for the most part, our brains haven't. They are still hard-wired to make sense of the world by categorizing, pigeon-holing, and drawing lines between good and bad. We think in terms of "fight or flight," "them versus us," and "right or wrong," even when we know that reality is much more complex. In our modern, interconnected world, our brains are ill-equipped to deal with the subtle and nuanced problems we face-living with a binary mind is like trying to drive through the center of a teeming city with a map that shows only highways.
Consequently, we continue to favor categories over gradations. We choose polarization over integration. And we exaggerate differences and play up similarities. In Black-and-White Thinking, Kevin Dutton reveals why these patterns of thought are so seductive, and shows how we can overcome destructive habits of mind by understanding our own evolutionary history.
By teaching our "gray matter" to see shades of gray, Dutton argues that we can slow the tides of religious intolerance, political extremism, and even internet trolling that have recently roiled the globe. Black-and-White Thinking is a scientifically informed wake-up call, and a lesson in why we cannot change the world without first changing the very nature of our minds.
Several million years ago, natural selection equipped us with binary, black-and-white brains. Though the world was arguably simpler back then, it was in many ways much more dangerous. Not coincidentally, the binary brain was highly adept at detecting risk: the ability to analyze threats and respond to changes in the sensory environment-a drop in temperature, the crack of a branch-was essential to our survival as a species.
Since then, the world has changed but, for the most part, our brains haven't. They are still hard-wired to make sense of the world by categorizing, pigeon-holing, and drawing lines between good and bad. We think in terms of "fight or flight," "them versus us," and "right or wrong," even when we know that reality is much more complex. In our modern, interconnected world, our brains are ill-equipped to deal with the subtle and nuanced problems we face-living with a binary mind is like trying to drive through the center of a teeming city with a map that shows only highways.
Consequently, we continue to favor categories over gradations. We choose polarization over integration. And we exaggerate differences and play up similarities. In Black-and-White Thinking, Kevin Dutton reveals why these patterns of thought are so seductive, and shows how we can overcome destructive habits of mind by understanding our own evolutionary history.
By teaching our "gray matter" to see shades of gray, Dutton argues that we can slow the tides of religious intolerance, political extremism, and even internet trolling that have recently roiled the globe. Black-and-White Thinking is a scientifically informed wake-up call, and a lesson in why we cannot change the world without first changing the very nature of our minds.