Exaggeration: why we make a mountain out of a molehill

In French, we have an expression to describe a situation where someone makes too much of a minor issue: “C’est une tempête dans un verre d’eau.” It’s a storm in a glass of water. Funnily enough, British people talk about a storm in a teacup, and American people talk about a tempest in a teapot. Dutch people say: “Van een mug een olifant maken.” Turning a mosquito into an elephant. In Turkish: “Pireyi deve yapmak.” Making a camel out of a flea. It’s fair to say exaggeration is pretty universal. But why?The many faces of exaggerationOverreacting, catastrophizing, magnificating, maximizing, overplaying, overblowing… We have many words for exaggeration. However, all forms of exaggeration mostly fall under three categories.Cognitive distortions. These unconscious mental processes cause people to perceive reality inaccurately. Distorted thinking patterns can lead to overestimation (exaggerating the likelihood of an event) or catastrophizing (exaggerating the importance of an event). While mo...