Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

The Generalization Instinct
Everyone automatically categorizes and generalizes all the time.
Unconsciously. It is not a question of being prejudiced or enlightened.
Categories are absolutely necessary for us to function. They give structure to
our thoughts. Imagine if we saw every item and every scenario as truly unique
—we would not even have a language to describe the world around us.

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The necessary and useful instinct to generalize, like all the other instincts in
this book, can also distort our worldview. It can make us mistakenly group
together things, or people, or countries that are actually very different. It can
make us assume everything or everyone in one category is similar. And,
maybe most unfortunate of all, it can make us jump to conclusions about a
whole category based on a few, or even just one, unusual example.
Once again, the media is the instinct’s friend. Misleading generalizations
and stereotypes act as a kind of shorthand for the media, providing quick and
easy ways to communicate. Here are just a few examples from today’s
newspaper: rural life, middle class, super mom, gang member.
When many people become aware of a problematic generalization it is
called a stereotype. Most commonly, people talk about race and gender
stereotyping. These cause many very important problems, but they are not the
only problems caused by wrong generalizations. Wrong generalizations are
mind-blockers for all kinds of understanding.
The gap instinct divides the world into “us” and “them,” and the
generalization instinct makes “us” think of “them” as all the same.
Are you working for a commercial company on Level 4? There’s a great
risk you’re missing the majority of your potential consumers and producers
because of your generalizations. Are you working in finance in a big bank?
There’s a great risk you are investing your clients’ money in the wrong places,
because you’re bundling together people who are vastly different.