In this review, the authors examine the link between adult hippocampal neurogenesis and anxiety and depression. They propose that impaired pattern separation underlies the overgeneralization often ...

In overgeneralization, the brain lumps both safe and unsafe things together and labels them all unsafe. For this reason, the researchers also call this the “better safe than sorry” approach.

Words like “never,” “always,” and “everybody” are tell-tale signs that an overgeneralization is present. Making overgeneralizations about groups of people is also common.