Generally? Yes. Specifically? No.
Every day is a fight against my lizard brain
This question can probably be interpreted a dozen different ways, so you’ll likely get answers to questions you hadn’t intended
Yes it’s ok to generalize. That is how humans quickly cope with an overwhelming amount of information. But you always need to be flexible and willing to recognize that not everyone fits the generalization.
It is also important to stop and ask yourself what you’re generalizing and why.
If you see a guy walking down a neighborhood street dressed like a letter carrier you can probably assume he is a letter carrier.
But maybe he is a stripper on his way to a party.
and some will protest it.
Generalization is a mental shortcut that simplifies things at the cost of accuracy. Ex: Dogs are canines. A Chihuahua is a canine. A wolf is a canine. But a Chihuahua is very different from a wolf.
I’d say it’s sometimes ok, sometimes necessary for brevity, and sometimes accurate. Accurate = “All people need oxygen, water, and calories to survive.” Brevity = “Generally speaking, people enjoy good food and good company so those situations work well for forming relationships.”
Consequences of generalizations have a lot to do with how tolerable they are. If I say, “most people like pizza” there’s not much harm if several million people don’t. If I say, “all or most people of this gender/ethnicity/religion/whatever have X problem” that’s a lot more problematic because it can easily lead to a consequence of harmful prejudice. When it comes to matters of ethics, beliefs, accusations etc. it becomes very important to handle cases individually as much as humanly possible.
accountants and actuaries get to generalize
And by that logic, statisticians/pollsters
and mathematicians
👈🤓👈
You do it every day whether you choose to or not, because that’s how the human brain works. So yes. Just be willing to change your ideas when a generalisation is no longer useful.
No, it’s never okay to generalize. Unless you’re saying my previous sentence in which case it’s okay.
I disagree. It’s fine to generalize about all people all the time. Every single one of them loves it.
It’s not just ok, it’s basically an requirment for civilisation to work at all.
Depends.
logistics? … generalized population requirements… ie. 50% are children, who need less of x.
People going to the beach generally use sunscreen. People hunting game generally wear camouflage. People in bed are generally resting.
Who cares if it’s okay, that’s subjective. I have limited clock cycles, attention span, and I have to prioritize what I’m going to expend energy on. I don’t have time to get to know every person I encounter. I’ve got people and things in my life that matter to me, if I see you and you’ve got face tattoos I’m judging, cry about it. If I have a reason to get to know you maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised. I doubt it. I’ve got a life to live, pattern recognition is a core part of my nature as a creature that I’m evolved to have, I’m gonna make use of that strength. Maybe if you don’t want to be judged as a scumbag don’t deliberately express mutable scumbag traits. Even if I’m wrong about someone I won’t regret it, it’s highly unlikely that if I were more open minded that their presence would’ve enriched my life and they would’ve become my best friend. It’s a cost benefit analysis. the likelihood that someone who deliberately expresses scumbag behavior wouldn’t behave like a scumbag is below 50%, and where I am wrong, they don’t need me to love them, they have people in their lives that know them and love them and why would they want to hang around a judgmental asshole anyway? Nobody really loses anything.
It’s okay to generalise about people who generalise about people.
Its fine if you are talking to people capable of understanding that you are generalizing.
