Kevin Dutton - Black and White Thinking

THE WISDOM OF PSYCHOPATHS: LESSONS IN LIFE FROM SAINTS, SPIES AND SERIAL KILLERS

FLIPNOSIS: THE ART OF SPLIT-SECOND PERSUASION

THE GOOD PSYCHOPATHS GUIDE TO SUCCESS

SORTED! THE GOOD PSYCHOPATHS GUIDE TO BOSSING YOUR LIFE

For more information on Dr Kevin Dutton and his books,
see his website at www.kevindutton.co.uk

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First published in Great Britain in 2020 by Bantam Press an imprint of Transworld Publishers

Copyright Kevin Dutton 2020

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Extract by permission Daily Mail

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ISBN: 978-1-473-55831-1

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In the beginning, when God created the universe, the earth was formless and desolate. The raging ocean that covered everything was engulfed in total darkness, and the Spirit of God was moving over the water. Then God commanded, Let there be light and light appeared. God was pleased with what he saw. Then he separated the light from the darkness, and he named the light Day and the darkness Night. Evening passed and morning came that was the first day.

G ENESIS 1: 1-5

Hes like a man with a fork in a world of soup.

N OEL G ALLAGHER

O N ONE PIECE OF PAPER are scribbled the words real life. On the other, the word fantasy. Each piece is sellotaped to a jam jar next to the cash register and in the middle sits a picture of Freddie Mercury. The jars are rammed three-quarters full with coins and bills. Which, it turns out, dont take long to accumulate. By the time I finish my entre both jars have been emptied and two new labels doled out. Kittens on one side. Puppies on the other. Not quite in the same league as the lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody perhaps. But effective, nevertheless. The resonant chink of metal on glass continues.

Im curious.

Im sitting in a caf in San Francisco, where Ive just spent the last fortnight talking to three of the worlds leading experts on black and white thinking the shallows of the binary brain. With time to kill before heading home to Oxford Ive ventured into Haight-Ashbury to reflect on things. I order some tacos and decide to ask the waitress what the deal is. She smiles.

We keep changing the labels, she tells me. Five, six times a day. Before, when we just had the one jar and there was no choice, the tips were very slow. But if you give customers the option kittens or puppies theyre way more generous. I dont know why. Its just a bit of fun, I guess.

Im not so sure.

Before I leave, I hang around the cash register waiting to pounce. Two women in their early twenties hesitate, giggle, and then break rank. One goes for kittens, the other puppies.

Why? I ask.

Cats dont need you, says one woman. Puppies do.

Her friend shakes her head. Thats exactly why I prefer cats! You never need to take a cat out for a walk. But you cant very well not walk a dog. Wheres the fun in that when its cold, dark and raining

Puppy Woman cuts her off. Shes not letting this one go. Which is why dog people are more friendly, she protests. When you take your dog out for a walk you meet other dog walkers and you start to get to know each other.

The to and fro continues for a while until they go off, bickering. The waitress comes over and rings up another sale.

See, she says. I told you. People enjoy it when they have to make a choice. And, in the process, they go away happy.

I nod. But I cant help wondering about some of those other choices she mentioned. What other options were customers presented with when they came to settle their bills?

She shrugs. Apple or Microsoft, she says. Spring or fall. Bath or shower

She tails off as she zips away to another table. But the list, Im guessing, is endless. Because, actually, there are any number of binary ways you can divide people. Any number of opposing axes of preference you can fashion from our composite identities.

My mind goes back to a piece Id read in the local newspaper, the Chronicle. Apparently, Facebook currently had some seventy-odd different categories for gender identity alone. And there were getting on for something like 4,000 different music genres on Spotify. In a murky world of fuzzy, blurry boundaries and ever-increasing border-creep we jump at the chance to categorize ourselves unconditionally. To nail our colours definitively to the mast. Especially when those colours happen to be clean, simple, and psychologically unchallenging.

As the jam jars attest, well even pay for the privilege.

We live in a divided world. Everywhere we look, there are lines. Countries, most noticeably, have borders. On one side is us. On the other, them. Cities have districts and neighbourhoods. But in everyday life, the lines that we draw are endless. We draw lines based on gender. We draw lines based on race. Here in the UK, we even draw lines based on Europe. In or out.

Our brains come equipped with a formatting palette. Were hardwired to draw lines by our rich evolutionary past. But how can we be sure that the lines we are drawing are accurate? And how do we know where to place them? The answer, quite simply, is: we cant. We have no way of knowing, no means by which to be certain, that the lines we are drawing are true. And yet still we are compelled to draw them. Because the world is a complicated place and lines make stuff easy and doable. And doable is something we crave.

By way of example lets take student grade point averages (GPAs). In academia, degree classes are awarded on the basis of where a candidates final year average falls within the spectrum of a preset range of marks. On the one hand, this is perfectly reasonable. But on the other, statistically impressionist. Does it really make sense to talk of one student having a first-class mind and the other not, if one averages seventy and the other sixty-nine?

This is a question that doesnt just ooze philosophical appeal but which has practical implications, too. Opportunities exist for students with first and upper-second class degrees that do not exist for those with lower classes. A point here or there at or near a grade boundary can spell the difference between continuing on to a higher degree or, academically speaking, journeys end. Dreams can be dashed. Career prospects ruined. Doors open and close depending on where we draw our lines. Sometimes, quite literally. As part of the strategy for dealing with the spread of Coronavirus in the March of 2020 the UK government urged all people over seventy to remain within the confines of their own homes to protect themselves against the disease. Over seventy when it comes to exams, doors open. Over seventy when it comes to Coronavirus, doors close.