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.
Generally? Yes. Specifically? No.
accountants and actuaries get to generalize
And by that logic, statisticians/pollsters
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.
Dang Lemmy users and their silly questions. They’re all the same!
This question can probably be interpreted a dozen different ways, so you’ll likely get answers to questions you hadn’t intended
Depends.
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.
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.
Generally
Not if it causes anyone to treat people as anything besides the individuals they are.
Ever?
There are many defenses for generalizations but they’re all based on ethical laziness. For example, there is a growing number of people who dislike people from Russia due to them being in the news, something I probably don’t help. It would be one thing to speculate to oneself, to wonder if Russia is the Florida of the Asian world for a reason, or that maybe their ethnicity lost the lottery when it comes to mentality, but to put this into practice on a general level and exhibit scorn to people “just because” they’re Russian is wrong. It is unfair to anyone affected by a general opinion that they’re treated based on association if they go against the grain, and being a good person just stops being incentivized. It’s the mindset that gives us Hatfields and McCoys, or, in Russia’s case, chronic crime families because Russia itself often punishes whole families for the crimes of a few family members, which I’m sure has no bearing on the sudden power of the Russian mafia, wink wink. Nations, spiritual groups, genetic groups, fandoms, you name it, people always think it’s good to generalize them and it helps nobody. It’s simply a form of assumption.
People that ask these kind of questions have no moral compass
Seems like a generalized comment.
Making generalizations about people is a problem when the generalization is false or misleading, or is being used to make a false or misleading argument, which is often the case. If you’re wondering if a given generalization is problematic, odds are the answer is ‘yes’ otherwise you probably wouldn’t think of it as a generalization.
