Faulty Thinking: 15 Cognitive Distortions

FilteringFocusing solely on the negativeand ignoring all the positive.

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Polarized thinkingBlack and white thinking,

not seeing the grey.

OvergeneralizationAssuming all experiences andpeople are the same, based onone negative experience.

CatastrophizingAsuming the worst case scenario, magnifying the negative andminimizing the positive.

Control fallaciesThinking everything that happensto you is either all your faultor not at all your fault.

BlamingPointing to others when lookingfor a cause of any negative event,instead of looking at yourself.

Jumping to conclusionsBeing convinced of something with

little to no evidence to support it.

PersonalizationBelieving that you are at least

partially responsible for everythingbad that happens around you.

Fallacy of fairnessBeing too concerned overwether everything is fair.

ShouldsHolding tight to your personal rules

on how people ought to behave.

Emotional reasoningBelieving “If I feel it, it must be true!”

Fallacy of changeExpecting others to change to

suit your needs or desires.

Global labeling / mislabelingGeneralizing one or two instances intoan overall judgment, using exaggeratedand emotionally loaded language.

Heavens’ reward fallacyBelieving that any good act on yourpart will be repaid or rewarded.

Always being rightBelieving that it is absolutely

unacceptable to be wrong.

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