thought on stereotypes

why are stereotypes gross and often oversimplified generalizations? humans are not that smart. in order to make decisions we dichotomize rather than parametrize all the variables. we have the capacity to visualize in a spectrum of colour but ironically so often only think in black and white. so it's A or ~A. good or bad. us vs them. this coupled with our tendency to draw inferences from small samples and first impressions result in conclusions that often lack enough robustness to merit the degree of our convictions.

also a great factor in the mix is our self-love: everyone thinks "my opinions are superior to those of others" even though that is statistically a fallacy. we proceed to nucleate around people who we believe possess potential for reciprocal empathy within the contexts of our life because that makes us feel good about our social selves. and after surrounding ourselves with such people and consolidating our views with theirs -lacking recourse to genocide- we run our mouths off about those in different groups who occupy our environment.

the negative ethnic stereotyping we see today is a vestige of our tribal instincts from a time when, having to compete for resources with other tribes, denigration of others was perhaps expedient in strengthening the bonds in your own group of look-alikes. this is what i think of as the foundation of culture, an underlying behavioral ecology.

look-alikes -through herd behavior and processes like information cascades and memetics- eventually become think-alikes. thus culture has evolved into its own, carrying with it the prejudices inherent in the genetic tendencies that provided its original cues. and why so many 'prejudices'? well... how could pouncing on the positive attributes of others we don't want to mate with possibly help us beat the god-cursed folks at nature's game?