Cynosura

Beware generalisations

Generalisations are fine up to a point. They play a role in helping us to communicate broad ideas and concepts when precision is not needed.

For example, ‘At peak periods aircraft land at Heathrow every ninety seconds’. This generalisation doesn’t tell us when those peak periods are, nor does it spell out that there can be huge variations in timings across those peak periods. As a general rule, though, it helps us to get a picture in our minds of the volume of traffic going in to Heathrow.

How we then perceive that individually is another matter. An air traffic controller working at O’Hare International airport in Chicago, which has the second largest number of movements annually, would not find that especially high (Heathrow ranks 13th in such annual movements). Someone working at Bournemouth Airport would find the figure quite staggering (they manage around one every three minutes). Someone who knows nothing about the travel industry might wonder at how it was possible to land an aircraft and get it off the runway in such a short period of time before the next one arrives.

Nevertheless, such a generalisation helps us to interpret a lot of things about Heathrow from our perspectives.

Generalisations are often linked to statistics; ‘the average manager gets paid this amount’, ‘the speed of cars on that stretch of motorway is this’, ‘the hotel trade has a staff turnover of around 60% annually’ etc.

When generalisations become linked to groups of people then they can start to be dangerous. ‘All bankers are corrupt’, ‘all business owners are greedy’, ‘all politicians are in it for themselves’ all display one thing in common; a negative generalisation of a group of people. Of course you could have, ‘all nurses are angels’, all pilots are clever’, ‘all social workers are caring’.

In both sets of cases the generalisation is wrong. Not all bankers are corrupt nor business owners greedy; nevertheless the generalisation targets a group and encourages a negative perception which leads to distrust, suspicion and, in some cases, violence. Equally, not all nurses are angels, pilots that clever or social workers caring; and yet it encourages us to think favourably of such groups, to trust them and to act kindly towards them.

It is such generalisations that the media love to play to such effect. A good generalisation followed by a request for examples of ‘where you have been fiddled by a banker’ (for example) provides a rich seam of stories that allow the media to reinforce the generalisation and turn it into a scoop. Almost every example used by the media will be negative because positive stories don’t sell newspapers; they don’t play on your prejudices.

So next time you hear or read a generalisation just give it some thought before you get stuck in with your own lurid examples to back up the story. One day that generalisation could be about you and your kind.

Meanwhile, did you spot the deliberate omission in this blog? If you did then you will have spotted how prejudices can creep in to any story