Cameron_Taylor comments on Generalizing From One Example - Less Wrong

259 Post author: Yvain 28 April 2009 10:00PM

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Comment author: Alicorn 28 April 2009 10:43:51PM *  16 points [-]

This reminds me of some of the literature on fallibility of introspection. (If you have time only for one essay, read "The Unreliability of Naïve Introspection" and try the experiment with the playing card.)

As far as generalizing about an entire gender: It's extremely likely that I know a wildly unrepresentative sample of women, but why would you assume that the pickup artists don't? I imagine they meet vast numbers of women, but if they find them all at parties and clubs and bars, they're going to meet the kinds of women who go to parties and clubs and bars, not the ones who spend their time gardening at home or who go to all-women gyms to avoid being hit on or the ones who play D&D with their brothers in the basement. Even if their statements are accurate about that sort of woman (which I am not yet prepared to believe), that doesn't make them applicable to the entire gender, and the stereotype remains wildly inappropriate and offensive. If you're hearing things about men as a group that don't apply to you or any men you know, then chances are you're not hearing from someone who has a really ideal sample. If a female friend of mine complains about her sixth boyfriend in a row being a jerk, I don't conclude that men are jerks, I conclude that she has terrible taste.

Comment deleted 29 April 2009 05:41:47AM *  [-]
Comment author: MrHen 29 April 2009 01:40:56PM 0 points [-]

Which, mister downvoter [...]

Hmm, since I did not downvote, I must not need to read the rest of that paragraph.

Comment deleted 29 April 2009 01:56:29PM [-]
Comment author: Alicorn 29 April 2009 02:13:04PM 0 points [-]

That depends on your views on definite description. (It wasn't me, though.)