What Is Inflammatory Labeling?

It is time for the final post of my five-part series on the thoughts we have when we get mad. If you want to read the previous posts, you can find them here:

1. What is catastrophizing?

2. What is overgeneralizing?

3. What is misattributing causation?

4. What is demandingness?

I have saved the best for last with a post about inflammatory labeling.

Quick editorial note, though, that it is difficult to write an article about inflammatory labeling without swearing. I decided not to swear, but the consequence of that approach is that some of my examples sound artificial. If you are like me and prone to swearing, please add your own foul-worded descriptors as necessary (i.e., “Look at that idiot” = “Look at that f#%king idiot”).

First of all, what is it? Inflammatory labeling is just like it sounds. It is when we assign highly negative or even cruel labels to people or events in our lives.

Imagine you are at work, and one of your colleagues fails to finish a project. You may respond by thinking, “Wow, that guy is totally worthless.” You have now labeled that person as worthless, and you respond to them as such going forward. Your interpretations of this event will fail to recognize them as a person who may have quite a few strengths and might be capable in other ways, even though they made a mistake this time.

Source: pathdoc/Shutterstock

One place where it is very easy to label people negatively is on the highway. Drivers routinely use negative labels to describe other drivers. “Look at that idiot,” “What a dummy,” or “What does this loser think he’s up to?” are common refrains when behind the wheel.

A big part of this is because of the anonymity of the other drivers. We typically do not know who they are or what they are like, so it is easy to ascribe a singular label to them. They might be an award-winning nuclear physicist, but we do not know that. All we know is that they are driving too slowly in the left lane and are, therefore, a complete idiot.

One final thing to note about inflammatory labeling: It is not just people we label negatively. We can label events that way too (e.g., my party was a total disaster, that meeting was an absolute nightmare, etc.). Again, as we do with people, when we label events in these highly negative ways, we start responding to the label instead of the event as it actually occurred.

Inflammatory labeling is the most common of the five types of thoughts I have been writing about (Martin & Dahlen, 2007). Like the other thought types, it is associated with quite a few different negative consequences (e.g., tendency to get angry, express that anger in negative ways, have hostile and vengeful thoughts, get into fights) (Martin & Dahlen, 2007; 2011; Martin & Vieaux, 2013).

So what should you do about it? Here are a few tips:

1. Catch yourself. When you notice yourself labeling people or events in these negative ways, acknowledge it. Be aware of it first and simply say to yourself, “I’m labeling this person.”

2. Evaluate the label for accuracy or evidence. Was the meeting a “total disaster,” or did something good come out of it? Even if nothing good came out of it, does that make it a disaster, or are you catastrophizing? Is this person a “dummy,” or might they be a relatively smart person who just made a bad decision? Taking the time to evaluate our labels can help us have a healthier relationship with the world.

3. Finally (and again), practice. It is difficult to rethink the labels we use. We have likely been thinking this way for a long time, so undoing that will take some time. Be patient with yourself and keep trying.