Cognitive distortions are systematic patterns of biased thinking that distort reality in characteristically negative ways. First described by Aaron Beck in the context of depression and later elaborated by David Burns, these thinking patterns are not occasional errors but habitual tendencies that maintain psychological distress by reinforcing negative beliefs about the self, others, and the future. Recognizing and correcting cognitive distortions is a central goal of cognitive behavioral therapy.
Major Distortions
All-or-nothing thinking: seeing things in absolute, black-and-white categories ("If I'm not perfect, I'm a total failure"). Catastrophizing: expecting the worst possible outcome ("This headache must be a brain tumor"). Overgeneralization: drawing sweeping conclusions from a single event ("I failed this test, so I'll never succeed"). Mental filtering: dwelling on negatives while ignoring positives. Personalization: attributing external events to oneself ("They're laughing — they must be laughing at me"). Mind reading: assuming you know what others think. Fortune telling: predicting negative outcomes with certainty. Should statements: rigid rules about how things must be.
Cognitive distortions map onto well-established biases from cognitive psychology research. Confirmation bias underlies mental filtering (attending to confirming negative evidence). The availability heuristic contributes to catastrophizing (easily imagined disasters seem more likely). Anchoring effects contribute to all-or-nothing thinking (anchoring on extreme categories). Attentional bias research shows that anxious individuals selectively attend to threatening information, and depressed individuals show enhanced memory for negative events — these cognitive biases maintain the distortions.
Therapeutic Applications
In CBT, patients learn to identify their characteristic distortions through thought records that capture the situation, automatic thought, emotion, evidence for and against the thought, and a balanced alternative interpretation. With practice, recognizing distortions becomes more automatic, allowing patients to "catch" distorted thoughts in real time and generate more balanced alternatives. This restructuring process reduces the emotional impact of negative thinking patterns.