Here's a thing that has really helped with my issues.
You know those horrible magazines that are right at the checkout lines of any supermarket? And how they give you the impression your fellow humans are all really petty and mean? (Especially when you're already feeling overwhelmed by a supermarket.)
The perception's not accurate.
If a publisher only gets some of the population buying their magazines, the population is so large they don't just stay afloat but thrive. Even 30% would be huge!
So let's say if something's true 30-40% of the time, it can appear true 90-100% of the time.
Growing up with this idea that I was objectionable if I didn't like - or know about - what was mainstream, this is really easy to beat myself up with. F'rex "everyone loves Game of Thrones," becomes "what's wrong with me that I don't?" or "everyone wants to have children" becomes "it's a huge personal failing if I'm not up for it."
But there's more. Let's say I have an observer bias. Something was presented in a really intense way, or was presented as true when I was a child and didn't have experience to the contrary (Paul Ekman talks about this as part of emotional response). Then it *was* true then, but maybe on the whole it's true only 15-20% of the time rather than the 90-100% it appears to be.
