Truth in stereotypes
aeon.co
Truth in stereotypes
1–10 of 93 posts
Re: Truth in stereotypes
#2I suspect much of this unease about stereotypes and researching them comes from the scientific community not wanting their work to be used to justify extremism or far right/far left political parties.
After what happened with both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union misrepresenting scientific research to 'support' their policies, I suspect a lot of researchers want to avoid their own work being used for the same purposes.
Re: Truth in stereotypes
#3He picked a very inclusive definition of 'stereotype'. I wouldn't consider the idea that Jews don't celebrate Christmas (a Christian holiday) - its a matter of faith so feels more like a fact. The rest were demographics with a clear statistics basis - most of them well known and well understood not to be generalizations applying to the whole group. Saying that 80% of African Americans voted for democrats in 2012 would necessarily imply that 20% didn't. The ratio necessitates individual variation, something that a more common stereotype (black people like watermelon [side note: who the heck doesn't?]) doesn't allow. That's not to mention that the behavior in question is clearly in line with their best interest (GOP has been tilting right for years to appeal to an aging, racist, white base), implying that they like people of all races are assumed to be rational.
Re: Truth in stereotypes
#4He picked a very inclusive definition of 'stereotype'. I wouldn't consider the idea that Jews don't celebrate Christmas (a Christian holiday) - its a matter of faith so feels more like a fact. The rest were demographics with a clear statistics basis - most of them well known and well understood not to be generalizations applying to the whole group. Saying that 80% of African Americans voted for democrats in 2012 woul…
Which isn't to imply that the author is wrong about anything, just that most of what he's talking about doesn't fit the common definition of stereotypes, but demographics.
Re: Truth in stereotypes
#5The accuracy or inaccuracy of stereotypes reminds me of the regulations and ethical debates regarding the use of machine learning for example for creditworthiness. The algorithms often turn out to become "racist", because from the data they have, race is a good predictor.
I'm still somewhat ambivalent on that, because I'm not convinced that statistics can be racist. But people pointed out to me that the way these statistics are collected might not be free of bias. Also, for example race being a good predictor of creditworthiness might in itself be just an effect of racism (eg. because black people aren't hired at well paying jobs) and using that statistics exacerbates the problem. Those are pretty good points, but I still find it weird that we forbid businesses to use all the information they have available to make business decisions.
Re: Truth in stereotypes
#6Is this surprising? I've always thought, logically, that for a stereotype to become popular and remain so, it's got to be a better quick rule of thumb assessment than an alternative stereotype, ergo there must be some small kernel of truth or statistical disposition underlying it.
I remember it was an opinion that got me reamed out once by a rather terrible, but idealistic middle-school teacher.
Re: Truth in stereotypes
#7He picked a very inclusive definition of 'stereotype'. I wouldn't consider the idea that Jews don't celebrate Christmas (a Christian holiday) - its a matter of faith so feels more like a fact. The rest were demographics with a clear statistics basis - most of them well known and well understood not to be generalizations applying to the whole group. Saying that 80% of African Americans voted for democrats in 2012 woul…
I don't like watermelon, but this is the result of aversion therapy when I was 5. My family helped our neighbours pick watermelons and in return they gave us a huge number of watermelons. My brother and I at nothing but watermelon for months and even to this day I still don't like it.
Re: Truth in stereotypes
#8I suspect much of this unease about stereotypes and researching them comes from the scientific community not wanting their work to be used to justify extremism or far right/far left political parties. After what happened with both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union misrepresenting scientific research to 'support' their policies, I suspect a lot of researchers want to avoid their own work being used for the same purpos…
On a more pedestrian level, it's just courteous to not generalize.
All you need to do is ask an expat Canadian how much they enjoy repeatedly being asked "What part of the States are you from?". After a few dozen people make the same assumption about you, it can become aggravating. Never the less, it's a reasonable question to ask. 90% of people who sound like Americans (roughly speaking) come from the USA.
The more common a stereotype is, the more infuriating it is to be an outlier. So it's considerate to bear that in mind, even if the stereotype is valid.
Re: Truth in stereotypes
#9Stereotypes do surely contain a grain of truth, but it's very important not to use any of them when judging individual people.
Re: Truth in stereotypes
#10Stereotypes do surely contain a grain of truth, but it's very important not to use any of them when judging individual people.
Why? Accurate stereotypes are simply group-level information about people. You could call a stereotype a weakly informative prior.