The information handout describes jumping to conclusions – a cognitive distortion where individuals make hasty decisions or reach inaccurate conclusions that are not supported by the facts of a situation.
Offers theory, guidance, and prompts for mental health professionals. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.
Includes client-friendly guidance. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.
Cognitive distortions, cognitive biases, or ‘unhelpful thinking styles’ are characteristic ways in which our thoughts can become biased (Beck, 1963). Jumping to conclusions (JTC) is a cognitive distortion in which individuals make hasty decisions or reach inaccurate conclusions that are unwarranted by the facts of a situation. This thinking style usually takes two forms. First, people sometimes make "premature decisions." This means they might stop gathering information too soon or fail to consider all the facts, which can lead to wrong conclusions. Second, people might "over-adjust" their thinking by changing their decisions based on very little evidence that contradicts what they initially believed.
The Jumping To Conclusions information handout forms part of the cognitive distortions series, designed to help clients and therapists to work more effectively with common thinking biases.
Jumping to conclusions is a common cognitive distortion. Using this resource can help clients:
Interpreting ambiguous situations as threatening.
Hasty conclusions resulting delusional explanations for events.
Jumping to conclusions has been associated with chronic pain, psychosis, and suicide.
Teach clients about cognitive distortions.
Explore whether clients relate to jumping to conclusions.
Help the clients recognize when they are jumping to conclusions.
Address jumping to conclusions using techniques such as slowing down and re-evaluating automatic thoughts.
Catching automatic thoughts and (re)appraising cognitions is a core component of traditional cognitive therapy (Beck et al, 1979; Beck, 1995; Kennerley, Kirk, Westbrook, 2007). Identifying the presence and nature of cognitive biases is frequently a helpful way of introducing this concept - clients are often quick to appreciate and identify with the concept of ‘unhelpful thinking styles’, and can easily be trained to notice the presence of biases in their own automatic thoughts. Once biases have been identified, clients can be taught to appraise the accuracy of these automatic thoughts and draw new conclusions.
Jumping to conclusions is a style of thinking where people make hasty judgments or decisions based on a limited amount of information. For example, they might think the worst is certain to happen, assume they know what other people are thinking, or use their intuition to make snap judgements. Unfortunately, these leaps in thinking don’t take all the facts into consideration, which can lead to conclusions that aren’t always accurate or helpful.
As with many cognitive biases, there may be evolutionary reasons why people jump to conclusions. Gilbert (1998, 2013) describes JTC as a ‘better-safe-than-sorry’ style of thinking that has enabled humans to make rapid decisions in threatening situations. While this can lead to mistakes, assuming the worst and taking defensive action unnecessarily is a less risky strategy. In addition, thinking about others categorically (e.g., “they are all bad”) may have helped justify aggressive and/or exploitative actions towards outgroups.
