and another thing -
Comment policy
Comments in haiku form are strongly preferred, and I promise to smile every time I read one.
Comments including profanity, personal or ad hominem attacks (such as about appearance, writing style, personality) will be ignored, or any of the stereotypical ‘isms’ (race, s*x) etc., will be deleted. Inclusive ‘isms’ such as multicultural, are welcome.
Generally, I don’t like generalisations, and these will be responded to with a standard and hopefully infuriating paragraph (see below).
On Generalisations.
A generalisation is a reference to a large group of people or other entities, where characteristics are ascribed to all individuals within the group. This fallacy has also been termed the fallacy of insufficient sample, fallacy of the lonely fact, or jumping to conclusions. Generalisations are factually incorrect*.
For research on the damaging effects of generalisations, stereotyping, and prejudice, I refer you HERE, and HERE (out of date, but still (generally) very sadly true), which are just the tip of the empirical iceberg.
No further response to comments including generalisations will be given. Feel free to repost your comment minus the offending phrase.
*Yes, I see the irony. Here is my answer: The probability of a generalisation being factually correct is so small as to be negligible, especially as group sizes increases. Therefore I feel justified including this generalisation in my paragraph about generalisations. Further justification; it’s my blog, dammit!
As illustration, in a café at UQ on the 23/9/11, I overheard someone say, “that’s the problem man, women think too much”. I assume this was in reference to thinking about relationships or some such stereotype. Setting aside the question of what criteria entails ‘too much’, an examination of the sample of women even at UQ would prove this generalisation to be false. Personally, I think that I think about relationships just the right amount, but I seriously digress.
love it baby!
Posted by: sue | October 22, 2011 at 10:34 AM