AMERICAN BINARY THINKING: PSYCHOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS, RELIGIOUS FRAMING, AND MEDIA REINFORCEMENT

Abstract

Binary thinking is a pervasive anti-intellectual framing in American thought and public discourse. The interest of this study has been the causation of reactionary binary oppositional thought processes in American minds. Previous studies in binary thinking have focused on warnings of binary thinking’s impact and a litany of examples. It is this study’s finding that American reactionary binary oppositional thought processes are built across an interdisciplinary arc from fear-based psychology through a uniquely American legacy Calvinist social contract of moral binaries, and is reinforced in the American mind through the incessant use of binary framing by commercial news media, entertainment media, and social media. This study found that binary thinking is an impediment to individual intellectual and moral development, in stark contrast to American beliefs in freedom of conscience. This study also strongly suggests that all sociological and intellectual issues are inherently interdisciplinary in nature and require interdisciplinary studies.