Fallacies and Cognitive Biases: Stereotyping ~ by Ransom

 

This article is part of an ongoing series that began with Fallacies and Cognitive Biases.

The above picture is a detail from "50 Cognitive Biases to be aware of so you can be the very best version of you"

"We adopt generalized beliefs that members of a group will have certain characteristics, despite not having information about the individual."

This cognitive bias helps us survive in an information-scarce environment.

If all we know about a group is one individual, that's something.  We can work from that.

The idea that a group /wouldn't/ be similar to its members is strange.  How often do we see that in nature?  Expecting people to use a mental strategy in most of their lives and then suddenly turn it off for one specific part is naive.

Information is valuable.  In an enviroment that hasn't been proven to be low risk information is very valuable.  When we don't know enough we must extrapolate -- and how often do we actually know enough anyway?  Extrapolation is the rule rather than the exception.

Not only is a weakly-supported theory better than no theory, a cautious theory is better than an incautious one.  When you don't know much it is prudent to hedge risk by assuming the worst.  Stereotyping will therefore tend towards the negative rather than the positive.

Sticking with one theory after contradictory evidence presents itself is not prudent but it is consistent with our minds' attempt to conserve energy.

See Anchoring.