# Are people who stereotype or generalize of lower intelligence? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 12, 2015, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-who-stereotype-or-generalize-of-lower-intelligence/727602 "2015-08-12T00:59:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Construct](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@Construct](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Construct)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-who-stereotype-or-generalize-of-lower-intelligence/727602/21 "2015-08-12T15:05:05Z")
> [@Kimbosquee](#): > > Can you explain exactly why refusing to use stereotypes is irrational. I agreed when you said sharing that with your friends and making it a point is irrational, but the simple act of refusing to use stereotypes? I always judge a person by their actions. If I find myself lumping somebody by a particular trait on first sight, I stop in my tracks because I feel it is wrong. It’s not due to any political belief and I am in fact moderate. Hell I’ll even knock down stereotypes having to do with rednecks or pickup trucks, for example. **Blaster Master** gave a good explanation above, but the crux is that stereotypes provide useful information, and ignoring stereotypes results in worse outcomes than using them. In some situations, judging a person by their actions may be impossible (e.g. the homeless man in **pool** ’s post), and stereotypes are then not merely useful but genuinely required. I can’t speak as to your moral system, and you may very well find stereotypes immoral, but they are certainly rational. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-who-stereotype-or-generalize-of-lower-intelligence/727602/22 "2015-08-12T15:33:07Z")
People being unwilling to see that stereotypes are nothing more than useful generalizations is what makes them problematic. Naive people treat stereotypes as _rules_, and are unwilling to make exceptions when actual information about an individual instance becomes available, or to modify the stereotype in light of new information. But I think people who claim never to use stereotypes are simply fooling themselves - another form of naivete. People use them all the time, because individual information is usually not available, or not available quickly enough. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-who-stereotype-or-generalize-of-lower-intelligence/727602/23 "2015-08-12T17:13:16Z")
> [@justjake](#): > > How so? > > I generalize that if i see a black man with sagging pants based off of his appearance he is most likely not of high intelligence or he would not be dressed like that. I think you’re generally going to be right as a statistical point, but assuming that intelligent people will do this or that is a design for being wrong. Some drug dealers are very smart about their business. Immoral behavior has been combined with intelligence many times through history. ---
**Author:** ![Kimbosquee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@Kimbosquee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimbosquee)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-who-stereotype-or-generalize-of-lower-intelligence/727602/24 "2015-08-12T18:30:03Z")
Blaster Master is right on the money imo. I guess my OP was a little too black and white, which is another thing I am against… ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-who-stereotype-or-generalize-of-lower-intelligence/727602/25 "2015-08-12T18:41:55Z")
I think we generalize more out of a lack of knowledge than out of a lack of intelligence. Take the example of taxi-cabs. I, not a taxi driver, might say “all cabs are yellow.” But the manager of a taxi company, who has intimate knowledge of all things cab-related, might say “there are 47 different shades in the yellow-orange family that are routinely chosen for painting taxis.” He specifies where I generalize because his knowledge is greater than mine. We might both be geniuses, or both be as dumb as two boxes of rocks. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-who-stereotype-or-generalize-of-lower-intelligence/727602/26 "2015-08-12T23:26:04Z")
This is kinda like asking ‘Are all muslims terrorists?’ No, of course not. But a high percentage of terrorists are such for strong religious reasons. So I would reverse it. I would say that people of lower intelligence are much more likely to stereotype and generalize. I should go into politics… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-who-stereotype-or-generalize-of-lower-intelligence/727602/27 "2015-08-12T23:44:31Z")
There are smart racist/classist/nationalist/whateverist people. They tend to be better at hiding it than others to appear sociable, but they’re around. From studies, it seems to be all over the place. You can find some claiming a link berween low IQ and racism, you can find studies that say higher IQ whites are just as racist as low IQ whites, you can find implicit association tests that show pretty much everyone is racist against black people, even black people themselves, and you can find experiments that supposedly show even babies are racists and prefer looking at pictures of their own race. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-who-stereotype-or-generalize-of-lower-intelligence/727602/28 "2015-08-12T23:53:01Z")
I think the most intelligent people are the ones who know when they are generalizing and when they are not, and do not confuse the likelihood of something having a certain outcome with that outcome being an absolute truth. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-who-stereotype-or-generalize-of-lower-intelligence/727602/29 "2015-08-13T00:08:12Z")
I just want to say that I am happy to finally see a thread in which most people seem to understand the necessity of stereotyping in human cognition and its importance in basic function. I usually use the “quick, imagine a chair” analogy but others gave better ones before me (I doubt you thought of anything but a standard chair on legs even though there are plenty of other types but that is a stereotype too). It is impossible for anyone to function in day to day life without using stereotypes. In fact, you would appear to others to be quite dumb or even severely mentally ill if you tried to force yourself disregard all stereotypes and treat every person, object and situation as novel with no assumed prior knowledge based on mental stereotyping tools. Stereotyping does not equal bigotry or anything bad at all for that matter. It is just a necessary mental tool required to navigate all interactions with others and the world in general. It can become problematic when people cannot understand that they are just generalizations and abstractions that almost always have a long list of exceptions and various levels of refinement depending on the context to go along with them. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-who-stereotype-or-generalize-of-lower-intelligence/727602/30 "2015-08-13T00:40:17Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > Stereotyping does not equal bigotry or anything bad at all for that matter. It is just a necessary mental tool required to navigate all interactions with others and the world in general. It can become problematic when people cannot understand that they are just generalizations and abstractions that almost always have a long list of exceptions and various levels of refinement depending on the context to go along with them. The word ‘ **stereotype** ’ has a nearly hopeless negative connotation to it. On a forensic, evolutionary, scientific level think of the phrase ‘ **pattern recognition** ’ instead. Our brains are incredibly and inexorably hard-wired to do this. ---
**Author:** ![Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-who-stereotype-or-generalize-of-lower-intelligence/727602/31 "2015-08-13T12:12:09Z")
> [@Blaster\_Master](#): > > For example, black people with sagging pants, bad, black people in suits, good. Sigh, my mate (a black person) posts a picture of himself in a suit saying people are asking him if he’s going to court. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-who-stereotype-or-generalize-of-lower-intelligence/727602/32 "2015-08-13T13:56:06Z")
Stereotyping is simply a way to show that your beliefs are right. I wouldn’t say that Fred Phelps and his cult are stupid, but they stereotype “fags” to the nth degree. Just this morning, I was talking with a homophobe who said that “homosexuals gave the world AIDS.” As if that makes hating gay people right (of course, I pointed out to him that lesbians have a very low rate of AIDS, and it’s more accurate to say “men gave the world AIDS.”) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-people-who-stereotype-or-generalize-of-lower-intelligence/727602.md?page=1)