Why do people construct either/or scenarios?

Question

I have noticed how often people have constructed Either/Or scenarios in the questions that they post.

Why do they do it?

There is a particular aspect of phenomenology that looks at polarities. Either/or is an example of a polarity and I am curious on how people choose the or that corresponds to the either.

For example, night or day would be considered opposites or polarities, however, not all polarities appear to be direct opposites.

Answer 1

It's a thinking style, like "black/white" thinking, the duality and polarity, everything is either "good" or it's "bad" but there are only those two categories.

We learn our thinking styles from our parents. If they have the "either you're with me or an enemy" mentality then the kids pick it up and do it, too.

Answer 2

to give people a choice, since we don't know the questioner's entire situation. Some people post stories here that aren't real life, haven't really happened, could never happen, they tell situations about their friend when in reality the story is about themself, they omit things from the story so as to sway the responder to agree with them if they are doing something right or wrong or for many other reasons, and, sometimes we respond with many answers because we don't totally understand the question, or because the question is open ended. There you go, a lot of either/or scenarios.

Answer 3

People look at past or future, rather than present or not present.

Answer 4

because we can.