Some people meet, fall in love and get married right away. Others can spend hours in the sock aisle at the department store, weighing the pros and cons of buying a pair of wool argyles instead of cotton striped.
Seeing the world as black and white, in which choices seem clear, or shades of gray can affect people’s path in life, from jobs and relationships to which political candidate they vote for, researchers say. People who often have conflicting feelings about situations—the shades-of-gray thinkers—have more of what psychologists call ambivalence, while those who tend toward unequivocal views have less ambivalence.
High ambivalence may be useful in some situations, and low ambivalence in others, researchers say. And although people don’t fall neatly into one camp or the other, in general, individuals who tend toward ambivalence do so fairly consistently across different areas of their lives.
For decades psychologists largely ignored ambivalence because they didn’t think it was meaningful. The way researchers studied attitudes—by asking participants where they fell on a scale ranging from positive to negative—also made it difficult to tease apart who held conflicting opinions from those who were neutral, according to Mark Zanna, a University of Waterloo professor who studies ambivalence. (Similarly, psychologists long believed it wasn’t necessary to examine men and women separately when studying the way people think.)
Different Strokes
PEOPLE WHO SEE THE WORLD AS BLACK AND WHITE TEND TO…
- Speak their mind or make quick decisions.
- Be more predictable in making decisions (e.g., who they vote for).
- Be less anxious about making wrong choices.
- Have relationship conflicts that are less drawn out.
- Be less likely to consider others’ points of view.
PEOPLE WHO SEE THE WORLD IN SHADES OF GRAY TEND TO….
- Procrastinate or avoid making decisions if possible.
- Feel more regret after making decisions.
- Be thoughtful about making the right choice.
- Stay longer in unhappy relationships.
- Appreciate multiple points of view. View the rest of this posting
When it comes to starting a successful business, there’s no surefire playbook that contains the winning game plan.
IL CANE DI FERRO
ricordo, mentre guardavo la tv, le promesse del Cavaliere che il governo avrebbe ricostruito questa bella citta’ subito. Purtroppo nulla puo’ essere piu’ lontano dalla verita’. Che scandalo! Che vergogna!
