Black-and-White Thinking in Autism

Black and white thinking, also known as all-or-nothing or dichotomous thinking, sorts experience into two opposite categories, such as right or wrong, with nothing in between. It is widely described in autistic individuals, though it has been little tested in diagnosed autistic samples.

It’s characterized by an inclination to perceive situations, ideas, or beliefs in absolute terms, without recognizing middle ground or shades of gray. This can be likened to seeing the world in black and white, with no other colors present.

Black and white thinking is not unique to autism. Everyone slips into all-or-nothing thinking sometimes. It happens most when tired, anxious or short of time.

Researchers also find it in non-autistic people alongside perfectionism, eating disorders and some personality traits (Bonfá-Araujo et al., 2021; Egan et al., 2007).

Dr. Lucy Russell, a clinical psychologist, affirms that “the cognitive pattern of black and white thinking is a very common trait of autistic people”.

This thinking style can profoundly influence how autistic individuals navigate their daily lives, impacting their relationships, decision-making processes, and overall well-being.

Examples of Black and White Thinking in Autism

Black-and-white thinking means sorting experience into two opposite categories, such as right or wrong or success or failure, with nothing in between.

The examples below come from practice accounts, which illustrate the pattern. They are not research findings, so each one also says what research has and has not tested.

Some common examples in autism include:

Rigid routines and “one right way” to do things

An autistic person might insist on doing a task the exact same way every time and believe any other way is incorrect.

For instance, a child may only accept one specific morning routine or route to school. If forced to change, they feel the whole day is “ruined” because it didn’t go the “right” way.

What makes this black-and-white is the framing. A change is not “different” but “wrong”, and the day is not “a bit off” but “ruined”. The diagnostic manual lists inflexible adherence to routines, with rigid thinking patterns among its examples (American Psychiatric Association, 2022). The need underneath, for predictability, is understandable.

No study has yet tested whether autistic people frame changes to routine in binary terms more than other people do.

All-or-nothing self-evaluation

Anything less than perfect might be seen as a failure. An autistic student might consider a 97% score on a quiz as a complete failure because it’s not a 100%​.

Similarly, if they make one mistake in a day, they may declare “I had a terrible day,” ignoring any good things that happened.

The research here is indirect. In one study, autistic boys endorsed more dysfunctional attitudes than typically developing boys (Greenaway & Howlin, 2010). These are rigid “I must always…” beliefs of the kind cognitive therapy targets.

The study used questionnaires with a small sample of boys. Those attitudes are a wider set of beliefs than black-and-white thinking. How strongly all-or-nothing self-evaluation operates in autistic people has not been tested directly.

Binary judgments of people and relationships

Autistic individuals might label people as either all good or all bad. A friend who was kind yesterday but is brusque today could suddenly be seen as “not a friend anymore.”

One autistic teenager shared an example. After an argument with a friend, he immediately felt the friendship was over. He struggled to understand that disagreements can be temporary.

There is often no middle status like “we’re having a rough patch but we’re still friends.”

This is the weakest-evidenced of the patterns described here. No study has tested it in autistic people.

In the general population, the main questionnaire for black-and-white thinking was compared with undervaluing others (Oshio, 2009). Sorting people into categories is therefore a plausible part of the style, but whether autistic people do it more is unknown.

Literal interpretation of rules and fairness

Many autistic people describe a strong sense of justice and fairness, and some researchers propose that black-and-white thinking reinforces it (Stark et al., 2021). They may expect everyone to follow stated rules and norms.

If someone (even an authority figure) behaves unfairly, the autistic person finds it intolerable or baffling.

For example, one autistic adult recalls being completely confused in school upon seeing a teacher bully a student.

In his black-and-white logic, teachers are supposed to be respectful, so if a teacher was mean, how could students still be expected to respect any teacher?

The justice link is only a proposal. Experiments on moral judgment do not show a rule-bound stance:

• Utilitarian Answers: Autistic adults more often accepted harm for a greater good than neurotypical controls (Gleichgerrcht et al., 2013).
• Similar Ratings: 25 autistic and 22 non-autistic adults rated emotive moral statements as similarly acceptable (Brewer et al., 2015).

A firm commitment to fairness and a binary view of every case are different things.

Difficulty with ambiguous communication

Autistic individuals might find sarcasm, jokes, or “white lies,” which exist in a gray area between truth and fiction, harder to read.

Literal thinking is often blamed. The research is more qualified.

One autistic person gave an example from his life: as a teenager, he tried using sarcasm by saying “Yeah, right,” in response to a classmate (intending humor). But because he delivered it in a flat tone without the expected wink or inflection, the classmate took offense​.

He was following what he thought was a rule: “people say this sarcastically, so I will too.” But he learned that social meaning isn’t so black-and-white. Tone and context matter, and that was a nuance he had to consciously grasp.

Literal thinking may explain less of this. A meta-analysis of 41 studies found that autistic people understood figurative language less well on average (Kalandadze et al., 2018).

The difference was small and not significant when groups were matched on core language ability. It was larger for metaphor than for irony and sarcasm.

The misunderstanding in this example also ran both ways. The classmate missed that the speaker was trying to joke.

Challenges and Impact of Black and White Thinking

While black and white thinking can offer advantages in certain situations, it often presents significant challenges for autistic individuals.

These challenges can manifest in various aspects of life, impacting social interactions, emotional regulation, and overall well-being.

The table sets each reported challenge against what the research has actually tested.

Reported challenge	What the research shows
Difficulty with unexpected change	Uncertainty and anxiety are strongly linked in autistic people (Jenkinson et al., 2020; Bird et al., 2024). Black-and-white thinking has not been shown to be the mechanism.
Social misunderstandings	Mutual misreading (Milton, 2012) and the cost of masking are better-evidenced explanations. No study tests black-and-white thinking as a cause.
Emotional intensity and mood	In one direct test in non-clinical adults, dichotomous thinking was not related to worry (Shi & Hirai, 2024).
Perfectionism and difficulty finishing	Dichotomous thinking predicted distress-linked perfectionism in non-autistic samples (Egan et al., 2007). It has not been tested in autism.

Difficulty with unexpected changes

One of the primary challenges is difficulty with change and unexpected situations .

When things are rigidly categorized, adapting to new circumstances or deviations from routines can be extremely stressful.

This inflexibility can lead to meltdowns, anxiety, and difficulty coping with transitions.

Changes in routine are strongly tied to uncertainty and anxiety. A meta-analysis found a large association between intolerance of uncertainty and anxiety in autistic people (Jenkinson et al., 2020). A later one of 33 papers agreed (Bird et al., 2024).

In 95 autistic children and young people, parent reports linked cognitive inflexibility to anxiety through intolerance of uncertainty (Ozsivadjian et al., 2021). None of this shows that black-and-white thinking is the mechanism.

Social challenges

Autistic individuals may struggle to understand the nuances of social interactions, misinterpreting cues or taking things literally.

This can lead to misunderstandings, conflicts, and difficulty forming and maintaining relationships.

Many autistic people report difficulty making and maintaining friendships. Black and white thinking is sometimes blamed, but no study has tested that.

Better-evidenced explanations include the double empathy problem (Milton, 2012), the idea that misunderstanding between autistic and non-autistic people runs both ways. Another is the cost of masking, or hiding autistic ways of being.

Emotional challenges

This thinking style can impact emotional regulation. Minor setbacks might be perceived as catastrophic events, while positive experiences can lead to overwhelming joy.

This intensity of emotions can be challenging to manage and may contribute to anxiety and mood swings.  

The research does not yet show that black-and-white thinking drives these difficulties:

• Regulation: A meta-analysis of 55 studies found more emotion regulation difficulties in autistic children and adolescents than in comparison groups (Restoy et al., 2024).
• Direct Test: In non-clinical adults, dichotomous thinking was not related to worry (Shi & Hirai, 2024).
• Autistic Adults: In interviews about anxiety, 18 of 20 participants said they catastrophized when anxious (Roberts-Davis et al., 2026).

Autistic adults describe this in their own words. One participant expected that “life is gonna get worse” and that they would not cope (Roberts-Davis et al., 2026).

Perfectionism

In some cases, black and white thinking can contribute to perfectionism. Perfectionism means setting very high standards and judging your worth by meeting them. Seeing things as either perfect or a complete failure can lead to intense anxiety and frustration. This happens when things don’t go exactly as planned.

This can make it difficult to complete tasks, start new projects, or accept constructive criticism.

For example, one piece of “negative” feedback on an assignment might make the autistic person scrap the entire thing and start over.

Outside autism, the link is better documented. Dichotomous thinking was the strongest statistical predictor of distress-linked perfectionism in three non-autistic samples (Egan et al., 2007). Whether it makes tasks harder to start or finish has not been tested in autistic people.

Autistic adults use “all or nothing” differently too. They use it for activity, not judgment. In an interview study of autistic inertia, one participant described two modes: unable to stop and unable to start (Rapaport et al., 2024). “I’m either go, go, go or can’t move,” they said.

Are There Any Instances Where Black and White Thinking is a Positive Thing?

While often presented as a challenge, black and white thinking can also be a source of strength for autistic individuals.

Dr. Lucy Russell emphasizes the potential advantages of this thinking style:

“Whilst this thinking pattern may create difficulties in some situations, it can also be an advantage in other contexts. It is not always a bad thing. For example, black and white thinkers can often make quick decisions in situations where there is a clear right or wrong answer.”  

The climate activist Greta Thunberg is autistic. She has described the pattern as an insight.

In a TED talk published in December 2018, she said that for people on the spectrum “almost everything is black or white.” She added that, to her, there are no gray areas when it comes to survival.

In a 2019 speech she suggested that her black-and-white thinking helped her see the reality of the climate emergency (Stark et al., 2021).

Autistic people and clinicians describe several possible strengths. They are not equally well evidenced:

• Hyperfocus: Firm categories may help autistic individuals concentrate intensely on their interests or tasks. This link has not been tested.
• Justice and Fairness: A strong sense of fairness can drive autistic individuals to stand up against injustice. Whether black and white thinking underlies it is a hypothesis.
• Clear Communication: A direct style can foster transparency and understanding where indirectness might cause confusion.
• Consistent Decisions: In experiments, autistic adults made more consistent choices than non-autistic adults.

Decision-making is the best-tested strength. In a preregistered study, 90 autistic adults chose among consumer products more consistently than 212 non-autistic adults. The difference was medium-sized, and they were less swayed by decoy options (Farmer et al., 2017).

Autistic participants have also been less susceptible to the framing effect, where the same financial prospect is presented as a gain or a loss (De Martino et al., 2008). Both findings show choices less swayed by irrelevant context. Neither shows that the consistency comes from sorting options into two categories.

Why is Black and White Thinking Common in Autistic People?

Researchers have proposed several explanations for black-and-white thinking in autism, and no single account is established. The strongest evidence concerns uncertainty.

Here are some insights into why this pattern occurs and why it may differ among individuals. The table sets each explanation beside the strongest evidence for it and its main limit.

Account	What it says	Strongest evidence	Main limit
Uncertainty	Binary answers relieve uncertainty	Two questionnaire studies of non-clinical adults (Suzuki & Hirai, 2023; Shi & Hirai, 2024)	Non-clinical, cross-sectional, one laboratory
Cognitive flexibility	Shifting between rules is harder	Meta-analysis, small to moderate effect (Lage et al., 2024)	Large variation; task switching is not belief
Literal language	Meaning is processed concretely	Meta-analyses (Kalandadze et al., 2018; Morsanyi et al., 2020)	Gap narrows with language skill
Social communication	Missed context produces binary judgments	Double empathy framework (Milton, 2012)	Not tested for black-and-white thinking
Attention (monotropism)	Narrow, deep attention makes leaving a track costly	Theoretical argument (Murray et al., 2005)	Little direct testing

Intolerance of Uncertainty

Research and clinical observations show that many autistic people have a low tolerance for uncertainty or ambiguity.

The world is full of uncertain situations, such as social interactions, changes in plans and unclear expectations. These can be very stressful.

In response, an autistic person might develop a habit of categorizing things rigidly as a coping mechanism. A clear label feels certain. If everything can be labeled as “good or bad,” “safe or unsafe,” it leaves less uncertainty to grapple with.

A leading model proposes that this is how black-and-white thinking works (Stark et al., 2021). Three features interact to produce anxiety:

• Weaker Predictions: Less use of past experience to anticipate what comes next.
• Intolerance of Uncertainty: A negative reaction to situations whose outcome cannot be known.
• Black-and-White Thinking: Sorting outcomes into two opposite categories.

When something cannot be known, forcing a binary answer gives an outcome that feels certain. That relieves anxiety in the short term. So it works as a safety behavior.

The cost is that the person never learns that uncertain situations do not end in catastrophe. Anxiety then indirectly reinforces the habit. The authors present this as a hypothesis.

Two questionnaire studies of non-clinical adults in Japan have since tested part of the model. In both, higher autistic traits went with more dichotomous thinking only through intolerance of uncertainty (Suzuki & Hirai, 2023; Shi & Hirai, 2024).

The second also found no significant link between dichotomous thinking and anxiety.

Cognitive Rigidity / Need for sameness

A well-known aspect of autism is a preference for routines and sameness. Researchers sometimes call this cognitive rigidity. It means difficulty shifting thinking or adapting to new perspectives, and some prefer the term reduced cognitive flexibility.

If someone’s brain is “wired” to stick to one thought track, they may be more prone to all-or-nothing thinking. It is hard to switch to an alternative view.

A meta-analysis of 59 studies found a small to moderate difference in cognitive flexibility on average (Lage et al., 2024). It covered 2,122 autistic people without intellectual disability and 2,036 non-autistic comparison participants.

The largest difference was in perseverative errors, meaning repeating a response after the rule has changed. Variation between people was large. Many autistic people will not show it.

Autistic scholars offer a related idea called monotropism. A mind strongly focused on a few things at a time may find it costly to be moved off one track (Murray et al., 2005).

Deep focus can be a gift. But once a detailed set of rules is built, it can be hard to leave it and see the wider picture. The idea has been little tested.

Literal and concrete thinking

Some autistic individuals are literal thinkers, taking words at face value and interpreting concepts very concretely, especially in childhood.

Abstract or figurative ideas, like “sometimes X, sometimes Y” or “a little bit of both,” may come less naturally than clear, concrete definitions. That could feed black-and-white thinking.

Research is more qualified:

• Meta-Analysis: In 41 studies, the gap in figurative-language comprehension was small and not significant once groups were matched on language ability (Kalandadze et al., 2018).
• Metaphor: A gap persists for metaphor, but it narrows as verbal skill rises (Morsanyi et al., 2020).
• Graded Words: In a small study, autistic adolescents shifted their cut-offs for words like “long” or “sad” as flexibly as their peers did (Evans et al., 2026).

Language skill may therefore explain more than a literal thinking style.

Social communication differences

Autistic people may read social situations differently from non-autistic people. They might miss body language cues or context that soften an interaction, so they perceive things in a more black-or-white way.

For instance, a peer might make a teasing joke. A neurotypical person might tell by tone that “it’s just teasing.” An autistic person might register only the words, which could sound harsh, and think “he was mean to me.”

Each autistic individual has different levels of social understanding, so this aspect of black-and-white thinking also varies individually.

This is not a one-sided deficit. The double empathy problem proposes that misunderstanding between autistic and non-autistic people runs both ways, because non-autistic people also misread autistic people (Milton, 2012). On this view, some judgments that look black-and-white are reasonable inferences from signals that the two sides read differently.

Clear communication from both sides eases it. No study has yet tested this idea for black-and-white thinking specifically.

Evidence Check: Does the Research Support It?

The direct evidence comes from two questionnaire papers by one research group in Japan.

• First paper: In 151 students and then 500 adults, autistic traits went with more dichotomous thinking through intolerance of uncertainty. The direct path was slightly negative (Suzuki & Hirai, 2023).
• Second paper: In 405 adults, and separately 628 adults, the same indirect path appeared. Dichotomous thinking and anxiety were not significantly related (Shi & Hirai, 2024).

Together, they do not support the popular claim that autistic people think in black and white. It goes too far.

If binary thinking were a defining feature of autism, a positive direct path from autistic traits would be expected. The data fit a style that autistic people share with anyone who finds uncertainty hard.

The safety-behavior proposal (Stark et al., 2021), that binary answers relieve anxiety about uncertainty, was not supported either. The test was cross-sectional. It could not examine time order.

Failing to detect a link is weaker than showing there is none.

Several limits apply. Every participant was a non-clinical adult, and a screening score for autistic traits stands in for autism, not a diagnosis. The questionnaire was validated for personality research, not for autism.

No independent team has tested the claim. No systematic reviews or meta-analyses of the question were found.

The step from uncertainty to anxiety stands on firmer ground. Meta-analyses find a large association in autistic people (Jenkinson et al., 2020; Bird et al., 2024).

A related strength is better supported. Autistic adults made more consistent decisions in a preregistered comparison (Farmer et al., 2017). They were also less susceptible to a framing effect (De Martino et al., 2008). Whether that reflects black-and-white thinking is not established.

Overall, black-and-white thinking is widely described in autistic people but tested only in non-clinical samples. There, it relates to autistic traits through intolerance of uncertainty and not directly. How common it is, and what role it plays, in autistic people with a diagnosis is not yet known.

Managing Black-and-White Thinking: Strategies and Coping Techniques

Autistic individuals can use various strategies to make black-and-white thinking more manageable.

The goal isn’t to erase this trait, which is part of how someone thinks and also has benefits. The goal is to introduce flexibility and balance.

This helps prevent the negative effects (like anxiety and conflict) while preserving the positive ones (like clarity and honesty).

The strategies below come mostly from practice and from autistic people’s own accounts. No trial has tested one aimed at black-and-white thinking itself, so treat them as ideas to try, not proven treatments. Here are the approaches, in order:

• Self-Awareness: Notice absolute words such as “always”, “never” and “ruined” as clues.
• Rating Scales: Rate a day from 1 to 10, or use a color gradient, to show degrees.
• Both/And: Replace “either I succeed or I fail” with “I had success and made some mistakes.”
• Perspective-Taking: Narrate the other person’s side of an argument, or discuss stories with moral dilemmas.
• Celebrating Exceptions: Notice and reward moments of flexible thinking.
• Mindfulness: Breathing and pausing create a gap between a thought and a reaction.
• Keeping Strengths: The goal is balance, not losing your clarity.

Build Self-Awareness of the Pattern

Try to notice the words you use with yourself and others. Do you often say “always, never, completely, totally, perfect, ruined”? These can be clues.

For example, if you catch yourself thinking “I completely blew that presentation,” pause and check that thought.

Was it really a complete disaster, or were there some good parts and some parts to improve?

Simply being aware helps. A thought like “I might be doing that all-or-nothing thing again” gives you a chance to reframe the situation more realistically.

Spotting and testing a thought like this is the first step of cognitive restructuring. It is a core technique of cognitive behavioral therapy.

A survey of 50 UK therapists asked about adapting therapy for autistic clients. Twenty named “rigidity or black-and-white thinking,” a combined category, as the barrier they met most often (Cooper et al., 2018).

Qualitative work paints a mixed picture. Autistic adults who completed an adapted group program for social anxiety often found cognitive restructuring effective. Deeply held core beliefs and past negative experiences sometimes limited it (Roisenberg et al., 2026).

Introduce “Gray” Gradually

Deliberately practice thinking in terms of degrees instead of absolutes. One technique is to use a rating scale for experiences or feelings.

Let’s say you feel like “Today was awful.” Challenge yourself to rate the day from 1 to 10 instead. You might realize, “Well, it was mostly a 4 (not great), but had a couple of 7 moments when I enjoyed lunch and a video game.”

This simple exercise forces your brain to see that multiple truths (good and bad moments) existed together.

A color gradient or thermometer image can make this concrete. Imagine your opinion sliding somewhere between two extremes, not at one pole or the other.

Graded scales are plausibly within reach. In one small study, autistic adolescents shifted their cut-offs for graded words when context changed (Evans et al., 2026). No trial has tested rating scales as a treatment for black-and-white thinking, though.

Practice “Both/And” Thinking

A helpful mental habit is to replace “either/or” statements with “both/and” statements​.

For instance, rather than thinking “Either I succeed or I fail,” you might practice saying, “I both had success and made some mistakes.”

It may sound a bit forced, but literally using the words “both” and “and” in your self-talk can reframe your perspective.

Life is full of these mixed truths. Practicing this style of thinking in low-stakes scenarios (like fictional stories or hypothetical situations) can make it easier when you face real emotional situations.

Here are this section’s own examples, side by side:

All-or-nothing thought	More balanced thought
“Today was awful.”	Mostly a 4 (not great), but with a couple of 7 moments when I enjoyed lunch and a video game.
“I completely blew that presentation.”	Some good parts and some parts to improve.
“Either I succeed or I fail.”	“I both had success and made some mistakes.”
“They hate my work, I’m a failure.”	“This is how I feel right now, but maybe it isn’t 100% true in reality.”

Perspective-Taking Exercises

Try to intentionally see a situation through someone else’s eyes​. This can be challenging, but also fun and enlightening.

If you had an argument and your mind is saying “They were totally wrong,” pause and attempt to narrate the other person’s side: “Okay, what might they be thinking? Why might they feel they were right?”

You don’t have to immediately agree with them, but just recognizing that another perspective exists breaks the all-or-nothing bubble.

Some autistic individuals find it useful to consume stories (books, movies) that highlight different perspectives or moral dilemmas, then discuss them with someone. It’s a safe way to practice seeing multiple viewpoints.

In a more playful sense, even guessing what strangers are thinking can exercise the muscle of considering various possibilities. For example, you might look at a family on a park bench and ask, “What do you think they are talking about?”

That is practice in seeing more than one interpretation.

Misunderstanding between autistic and non-autistic people runs both ways (Milton, 2012). Perspective-taking therefore works best when non-autistic people also practice seeing the autistic person’s view. No study has tested these exercises as a way to reduce black-and-white thinking.

Celebrate Exceptions and “In-Betweens”

When you do catch yourself understanding a grey area or handling something in a flexible way, give yourself credit.

It’s not easy to change a thinking habit, so acknowledge the wins. For example, if you normally would think you failed if you didn’t finish a task, but this time you tell yourself “It’s okay, I made progress,” that’s a huge step.

Some people literally label this as “embracing the gray.” They treat themselves to a small reward or share the moment with someone supportive.

That reinforces the idea that more balanced thinking has positive outcomes, like less stress or a conflict resolved. It is a general behavioral principle, and it has not been tested for black-and-white thinking.

Mindfulness and Pausing

Mindfulness techniques can be very helpful in dealing with intense black-and-white thoughts or emotions. Mindfulness means paying deliberate, non-judging attention to the present.

Techniques like deep breathing, counting to ten, or short meditation can create a small space between the thought and your reaction.

In that space, you can remind yourself, “This is how I feel right now, but maybe it isn’t 100% true in reality. I’ll let the feeling exist without acting on it immediately.”

For instance, you might get an email that triggers you. Perhaps it holds a critical comment from a colleague, and you think “They hate my work, I’m a failure.” Resist the urge to shoot off a resignation letter or a defensive reply.

Instead, step away, breathe, and come back later when the intense feelings have settled.

Mindfulness has the best evidence of the strategies here. In a randomized trial, 42 adults with an autism diagnosis took a 9-week adapted mindfulness-based program.

They had larger reductions in depression, anxiety and rumination than a wait-list group (Spek et al., 2013). The trial did not measure black-and-white thinking, so it shows benefit for related outcomes only.

Supporting Someone Who Thinks in Black and White

The people around an autistic person can adjust too. These are reasonable adjustments to offer, for the person to accept or decline, not a program to change them.

• Education: Give feedback in graded language, such as “three of the four points are strong, and one needs work.” Show partial credit and give notice of changes.
• Work: Offer clear expectations, written instructions and stated criteria. Feedback that separates what to keep from what to change makes one critical comment less likely to read as “they hate my work.”
• Relationships: Name a rough patch as a rough patch, and say that a disagreement does not end the relationship. Explain your intent and flag sarcasm.
• Therapy: Use concrete examples, visual scales, structure and pacing (Cooper et al., 2018).

Straightforwardness is an asset when it is heard as honesty and not as rudeness, and that reading is partly the listener’s responsibility. None of these adjustments has been tested as a way to reduce black-and-white thinking itself.

Embrace Your Strengths (Don’t “Overcorrect”)

Finally, remember that the goal is balance, not to completely change who you are. It’s okay to have a black-and-white thinking style. You’re learning to add nuance, not lose your clarity.

Make sure to appreciate the positive sides of how your mind works. Maybe you have an eye for detail, or you’re exceptionally honest, or you stick firmly to your morals.

These are wonderful traits.

By acknowledging these strengths, you can approach change from a place of confidence: “I have good qualities that come from my thinking style.”

You don’t need to feel “wrong” or “broken.” You’re not. You are adding more tools to your toolbox.

Some autistic adults say that once they learned flexibility, they felt they had “the best of both worlds.” They could still be true to their black-and-white principles when it mattered and adapt when the situation called for it.

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