Assumption Gumption What's Your Function
Sep. 30th, 2005 10:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat[You'll have to forgive me I wrote this at 2 am in the morning and made more than one typo.]
Conjunction Junction What's Your Function has been floating about in my head all week, except I changed the lyrics to Assumption Gumption what's your Function. Become increasingly aware over time how fallable human reason is and how much of our beliefs, views, judgements, opinions, and attitudes are based on assumption derived from reasoning short-cuts. Makes sense, we have to make a million decisions each day, some of us more than others, depending on where we live and financial income. But even that statement may be based on faulty reasoning. There's an old saying that the wise man/ woman says " I don't know" while the fool states he/she does. Course if you took that old saying to it's literal conclusion that would make all agnostics wise and all true believers fools. And I'm not sure that logic tracks either.
The short cuts are simple enough, I'm not even sure we're aware we're doing it, or at least I'm not aware. Where do I get off pulling others into this with me - using the all inclusive "we". Annoys me to no end when others do it. I keep wanting to say - "how do you know anyone besides you feels this way, were you gifted with ESP or something?" Because, honestly, unless you took a poll every five minutes, you don't have a clue.
At any rate - the one's I've learned, that have been given scientific names are : "the clustering illusion" ( seeing patterns in things that aren't there - ie. the view that there is a face on the moon, "the judgement by representation" ( tendency to assume like goes with like or rather the tendency o assess the similarity of outcomes, instances, and categoroies on relatively salient and even superficial features andn then to use these assessments of similarity as a basis of judement. ie. spicy food is a cause of heartburn not bland.), "misperceptions of random dispersions" (The view that fluctuations have a direct causality to a random occurrence. ie. Hurely's view that the numbers he used in the tv show Lost caused the negative events in his life or that the numbers on the T-shirts in the tv series BTVS have meaning outside of the fact that the costume designer randomly chose them because she likes numbered t-shirts. More dangerous - the view that one person is bad luck, because every time they watch a baseball game the team loses.)
It got me to thinking how many faulty assumptions are made on a daily basis. How often people use bad or illogical syllogisms. And why. I'm more interested in why than how often. What is the faulty logic based on?
Experience, observations, education, environment, personality, interaction with others. If you surround yourself with people like you, who have the exact same interests you do, the same outlook, the same taste, the same up-bringing, socio-economic class, and religion - you may find yourself cultivating an outlook that is similar to the group you've surrounded yourself with and that outlook becomes, I'd think, increasingly strong over time.
To the point that - this is what is so. There is no other way. If however you surround yourself with diverse group of people from diverse backgrounds, races, cultures, outlooks, genders, etc, then you're less likely to have such ingrained attitudes. You may be more understanding of views that differ with your own. Then again maybe not.
In one of the journal's I read tonight, the user quoted an offensive quote and asked how it was possible for anyone to think this way. The quote was - "if you abort black babies, your crime rate would go down." The guy who said it, was scarily enough a person in authority, a political hack. He goes on to state: "Yes that's reprehensible but it's so. And we'd never do it of course..." or something to that effect. What hit me about the statement was how much it reminded me of another, similar statement made by a tenured Professor of Engineering at Rice University. This guy told me that he believed that blacks were not as intelligent as whites, but were rather more atheletic. And could only get into college on atheletic scholarships. Much to the embarrassment of his daughter, a friend of mine, who knew that this particular view made me see red. I remember asking him how he came up with this rather interesting hypothesis. He stated that it was based on observation and statistics in the area, stating the number of blacks in Houston who got into grad school as opposed to whites. I informed him that he was failing to take other factors into consideration and stated that considering the fact that I could site at least ten african-american or ethnically students from our undergrad and 100s of historical figures who out-ranked himself and his daughter in intelligence, that his syllogism was either faulty or he and his daughter by his own rules were mentally challenged. After pointing out the gaping holes in his logic, I began to explore how he got there - the answers were simple, the man had been raised in the south, white, privileged, never really interacted with people who weren't white and of Christian upbringing, the games he played were racially derogatory, taught to him by other children, reitering the stereotype. And, he'd never really lived outside of the Texas and Virgina. He surrounded himself with people of like mind and temperment. And the books he read reinforced his views. He basically made faulty assumptions based on experience and upbringing and information selected from others with similar upbringing to his own. The assumption after awhile became an attitude, a belief, but he didn't see it as such. When we began talking and I first challenged his logic, I realized that he did not understand the source of it. How he got there. The hardest assumptions to break are the ones people can't explain, they can't tell you.
Now going back to the man who believes that if you abort black babies or reduced the number of black births, your crime rate would go down. Why does he believe this? Well, he's taking a logical short cut. He's thinking okay 65% of the robberies are committed by blacks, 35% by whites. Blacks are committing the robberies to feed their kids, kids they can't afford. Therefore if we limit the number of children born, that would reduce the number of robberies. What information is this guy forgetting to evaluate or consider here? Well for starters the number of people committing robberies that don't have kids, the amount of drugs in the area, the socio-economic issues, unemployment, educational problems, poverty, and he is also forgetting to look at similar environments where the population is predominately white and poor. He is taking a logical short-cut and making an assumption without looking at all the data.
I've had four friends make assumptions about me, based on scant data, within the space of a week. Nothing major.
Simple ordinary little faux pas. A friend of mine last week stated, "all men make assumptions, it's annoying, but a male thing." Right there she proves that women, oops do it too. How does she know "all" men do it? Has she met every single male animal on the planet? It's an assumption. Yet, to be honest, I did nod vehemently in agreement and saw loads of evidence to back her up - it's my main difficulty with my brother, father, and one of my male friends - their tendency to "assume" things without listening closely or asking questions. They assume they know what I think or feel about something. Or what I'll do. Or what I think. "Of course, you'll do this."
Sorry no. You don't know what someone else feels, thinks, wants or will do about something unless they tell you.
And they don't always want to tell you these things, for a whole host of reasons, one of the major ones being they fear you'll leap to a conclusion about them based on what they tell you. You've given them evidence of this, so in an ironic sort of way - they've made an assumption based on their observations of your behavior towards them - causing them to not tell you something they might have. Making assumptions can hurt our interpersonal relationships. (The irony of this paragraph is that we all make assumptions, it's how we as humans reason.)
A few weeks ago I attempted to analyze fandoms - specifically BTVS one. All my conclusions without exception were faulty. They were based on assumptions obtained through biased observations, which ignored exceptions or contrary evidence. An argument I got into in another person's lj last week - same deal.
What's difficult to do is spot them. See where your logic is faulty. Try to move away from bad habits. If you surround yourself with yes-men, it becomes increasingly difficult. I think that's the reason that one of the things I hunt for in others is well, someone, who will disagree with me, call me on my shit, so to speak. It makes relationships tricky since I despise conflict, so I qualify it with people who "politely" do it.
For explaination of it the below game, read the above.
Here's a game, it's true/false. Spot the truthful assumption.
1. No one above the age of 30 is a virgin.
2. Virgins have never experienced sex of any sort and can't write about it and are poor pathetic creatures.
3. Every girl lost her virginity in college.
4. Europeans aren't as prejudiced as people in the US and tend to be nicer.
5. All blacks are stupid.
6. All Jews have dark eyes, are short, and have big noses.
7. Catholics have large families and don't use birth control and follow the Pope.
8. All Catholics are either from Irish or Latin descent.
9. Everyone who enjoyes BTVS is a geek.
10. All comic book lovers are geeks.
11. If you read comic books you must play Dungeons and Dragons or into role playing games.
12. All Americans are rich.
13. All Americans have indoor plumbing and electricity.
14. All Americans are Christian or Jewish.
15. All Europeans hate Americans.
16. All Spike lovers love Spike because he has great cheekbones and a great body.
17. All homosexual men are into cooking, fashion, and looking great.
18. Piceses tend to be wish-washy.
19. I get along with Sagitarians, therefore if Sam is a Sagitarian, I'll like Sam.
20. Most men I know who are film majors or into film analysis are gay, if Johnny is a film major, he must be gay.
21. All lesbians hate makeup and jewelry. Jamie is a woman and hates makeup and jewelry so must be a lesbian.
22. All lesbians cut their nails, Jamie cuts her nails, she must be a lesbian.
23. If you are female, single without a boyfriend, you must be gay.
24. My friend who is gluten free can eat oats, so you can eat oats.
25. My friend who is gluten free loves to eat this product, you'd love it too.
26. Americans are cheap travelers.
27. All British are snobs.
28. If you mispronounce words or mispell them you must be stupid.
29. If you can't read, then you are unintelligent.
30. My friend is dyselexic and was able to pass her board tests with ease, therefore you should be able to since you are dyslexic too.
31. I'm dyslexic and flip letters, everyone who is dyslexic only flips letters.
32. People from the Midwest mispronounce the names of states.
33. Intelligence is determined by how well you score on timed multiple choice tests. High scores mean you are smart. Low scores mean you are stupid.
34. If you miss on the first basket, you'll miss on the next two.
35. If the Serenity comic books sell out this means the movie will do well.
36. It is obvious that any hurricane would have destroyed New Orleans levees, after all they were proven to be weak.
37. Dogs are smarter than cats.
38. Cats are smarter than dogs.
39. If you take a pottery class, you will make something on the first few throws.
40. Anyone can sing , they just need to be taught how.
(These aren't the best in the world - but came up with them at 1 am in the morning off the cuff. Here's a few more: Only skinny women can find a guy, since all men prefer women who are thin. All democrats are liberals. All republicans are right-wing conservatives. The only women in fashion magazines and on tv that are considered pretty are thin, therefore you are only pretty if you are thin. All TV shows are violent. Children who watch violent tv shows are more aggressive than children who don't. )
All the assumptions above were false. Not a single one of them is true. Each and every one of them, without exception, is based on a logical short-cut, biasis, or the individual's own limited experience or interactions.
Some in fact are common stereotypes. Some very dangerous attitudes that case ingrained prejudices to develop.
And most are offensive. You probably went nuts reading a few of them. Laughed at a couple. Would it shock you if I told you that without exception, I've heard someone profess every single solitary one and scarily enough with almost unshakable conviction?
Conjunction Junction What's Your Function has been floating about in my head all week, except I changed the lyrics to Assumption Gumption what's your Function. Become increasingly aware over time how fallable human reason is and how much of our beliefs, views, judgements, opinions, and attitudes are based on assumption derived from reasoning short-cuts. Makes sense, we have to make a million decisions each day, some of us more than others, depending on where we live and financial income. But even that statement may be based on faulty reasoning. There's an old saying that the wise man/ woman says " I don't know" while the fool states he/she does. Course if you took that old saying to it's literal conclusion that would make all agnostics wise and all true believers fools. And I'm not sure that logic tracks either.
The short cuts are simple enough, I'm not even sure we're aware we're doing it, or at least I'm not aware. Where do I get off pulling others into this with me - using the all inclusive "we". Annoys me to no end when others do it. I keep wanting to say - "how do you know anyone besides you feels this way, were you gifted with ESP or something?" Because, honestly, unless you took a poll every five minutes, you don't have a clue.
At any rate - the one's I've learned, that have been given scientific names are : "the clustering illusion" ( seeing patterns in things that aren't there - ie. the view that there is a face on the moon, "the judgement by representation" ( tendency to assume like goes with like or rather the tendency o assess the similarity of outcomes, instances, and categoroies on relatively salient and even superficial features andn then to use these assessments of similarity as a basis of judement. ie. spicy food is a cause of heartburn not bland.), "misperceptions of random dispersions" (The view that fluctuations have a direct causality to a random occurrence. ie. Hurely's view that the numbers he used in the tv show Lost caused the negative events in his life or that the numbers on the T-shirts in the tv series BTVS have meaning outside of the fact that the costume designer randomly chose them because she likes numbered t-shirts. More dangerous - the view that one person is bad luck, because every time they watch a baseball game the team loses.)
It got me to thinking how many faulty assumptions are made on a daily basis. How often people use bad or illogical syllogisms. And why. I'm more interested in why than how often. What is the faulty logic based on?
Experience, observations, education, environment, personality, interaction with others. If you surround yourself with people like you, who have the exact same interests you do, the same outlook, the same taste, the same up-bringing, socio-economic class, and religion - you may find yourself cultivating an outlook that is similar to the group you've surrounded yourself with and that outlook becomes, I'd think, increasingly strong over time.
To the point that - this is what is so. There is no other way. If however you surround yourself with diverse group of people from diverse backgrounds, races, cultures, outlooks, genders, etc, then you're less likely to have such ingrained attitudes. You may be more understanding of views that differ with your own. Then again maybe not.
In one of the journal's I read tonight, the user quoted an offensive quote and asked how it was possible for anyone to think this way. The quote was - "if you abort black babies, your crime rate would go down." The guy who said it, was scarily enough a person in authority, a political hack. He goes on to state: "Yes that's reprehensible but it's so. And we'd never do it of course..." or something to that effect. What hit me about the statement was how much it reminded me of another, similar statement made by a tenured Professor of Engineering at Rice University. This guy told me that he believed that blacks were not as intelligent as whites, but were rather more atheletic. And could only get into college on atheletic scholarships. Much to the embarrassment of his daughter, a friend of mine, who knew that this particular view made me see red. I remember asking him how he came up with this rather interesting hypothesis. He stated that it was based on observation and statistics in the area, stating the number of blacks in Houston who got into grad school as opposed to whites. I informed him that he was failing to take other factors into consideration and stated that considering the fact that I could site at least ten african-american or ethnically students from our undergrad and 100s of historical figures who out-ranked himself and his daughter in intelligence, that his syllogism was either faulty or he and his daughter by his own rules were mentally challenged. After pointing out the gaping holes in his logic, I began to explore how he got there - the answers were simple, the man had been raised in the south, white, privileged, never really interacted with people who weren't white and of Christian upbringing, the games he played were racially derogatory, taught to him by other children, reitering the stereotype. And, he'd never really lived outside of the Texas and Virgina. He surrounded himself with people of like mind and temperment. And the books he read reinforced his views. He basically made faulty assumptions based on experience and upbringing and information selected from others with similar upbringing to his own. The assumption after awhile became an attitude, a belief, but he didn't see it as such. When we began talking and I first challenged his logic, I realized that he did not understand the source of it. How he got there. The hardest assumptions to break are the ones people can't explain, they can't tell you.
Now going back to the man who believes that if you abort black babies or reduced the number of black births, your crime rate would go down. Why does he believe this? Well, he's taking a logical short cut. He's thinking okay 65% of the robberies are committed by blacks, 35% by whites. Blacks are committing the robberies to feed their kids, kids they can't afford. Therefore if we limit the number of children born, that would reduce the number of robberies. What information is this guy forgetting to evaluate or consider here? Well for starters the number of people committing robberies that don't have kids, the amount of drugs in the area, the socio-economic issues, unemployment, educational problems, poverty, and he is also forgetting to look at similar environments where the population is predominately white and poor. He is taking a logical short-cut and making an assumption without looking at all the data.
I've had four friends make assumptions about me, based on scant data, within the space of a week. Nothing major.
Simple ordinary little faux pas. A friend of mine last week stated, "all men make assumptions, it's annoying, but a male thing." Right there she proves that women, oops do it too. How does she know "all" men do it? Has she met every single male animal on the planet? It's an assumption. Yet, to be honest, I did nod vehemently in agreement and saw loads of evidence to back her up - it's my main difficulty with my brother, father, and one of my male friends - their tendency to "assume" things without listening closely or asking questions. They assume they know what I think or feel about something. Or what I'll do. Or what I think. "Of course, you'll do this."
Sorry no. You don't know what someone else feels, thinks, wants or will do about something unless they tell you.
And they don't always want to tell you these things, for a whole host of reasons, one of the major ones being they fear you'll leap to a conclusion about them based on what they tell you. You've given them evidence of this, so in an ironic sort of way - they've made an assumption based on their observations of your behavior towards them - causing them to not tell you something they might have. Making assumptions can hurt our interpersonal relationships. (The irony of this paragraph is that we all make assumptions, it's how we as humans reason.)
A few weeks ago I attempted to analyze fandoms - specifically BTVS one. All my conclusions without exception were faulty. They were based on assumptions obtained through biased observations, which ignored exceptions or contrary evidence. An argument I got into in another person's lj last week - same deal.
What's difficult to do is spot them. See where your logic is faulty. Try to move away from bad habits. If you surround yourself with yes-men, it becomes increasingly difficult. I think that's the reason that one of the things I hunt for in others is well, someone, who will disagree with me, call me on my shit, so to speak. It makes relationships tricky since I despise conflict, so I qualify it with people who "politely" do it.
For explaination of it the below game, read the above.
Here's a game, it's true/false. Spot the truthful assumption.
1. No one above the age of 30 is a virgin.
2. Virgins have never experienced sex of any sort and can't write about it and are poor pathetic creatures.
3. Every girl lost her virginity in college.
4. Europeans aren't as prejudiced as people in the US and tend to be nicer.
5. All blacks are stupid.
6. All Jews have dark eyes, are short, and have big noses.
7. Catholics have large families and don't use birth control and follow the Pope.
8. All Catholics are either from Irish or Latin descent.
9. Everyone who enjoyes BTVS is a geek.
10. All comic book lovers are geeks.
11. If you read comic books you must play Dungeons and Dragons or into role playing games.
12. All Americans are rich.
13. All Americans have indoor plumbing and electricity.
14. All Americans are Christian or Jewish.
15. All Europeans hate Americans.
16. All Spike lovers love Spike because he has great cheekbones and a great body.
17. All homosexual men are into cooking, fashion, and looking great.
18. Piceses tend to be wish-washy.
19. I get along with Sagitarians, therefore if Sam is a Sagitarian, I'll like Sam.
20. Most men I know who are film majors or into film analysis are gay, if Johnny is a film major, he must be gay.
21. All lesbians hate makeup and jewelry. Jamie is a woman and hates makeup and jewelry so must be a lesbian.
22. All lesbians cut their nails, Jamie cuts her nails, she must be a lesbian.
23. If you are female, single without a boyfriend, you must be gay.
24. My friend who is gluten free can eat oats, so you can eat oats.
25. My friend who is gluten free loves to eat this product, you'd love it too.
26. Americans are cheap travelers.
27. All British are snobs.
28. If you mispronounce words or mispell them you must be stupid.
29. If you can't read, then you are unintelligent.
30. My friend is dyselexic and was able to pass her board tests with ease, therefore you should be able to since you are dyslexic too.
31. I'm dyslexic and flip letters, everyone who is dyslexic only flips letters.
32. People from the Midwest mispronounce the names of states.
33. Intelligence is determined by how well you score on timed multiple choice tests. High scores mean you are smart. Low scores mean you are stupid.
34. If you miss on the first basket, you'll miss on the next two.
35. If the Serenity comic books sell out this means the movie will do well.
36. It is obvious that any hurricane would have destroyed New Orleans levees, after all they were proven to be weak.
37. Dogs are smarter than cats.
38. Cats are smarter than dogs.
39. If you take a pottery class, you will make something on the first few throws.
40. Anyone can sing , they just need to be taught how.
(These aren't the best in the world - but came up with them at 1 am in the morning off the cuff. Here's a few more: Only skinny women can find a guy, since all men prefer women who are thin. All democrats are liberals. All republicans are right-wing conservatives. The only women in fashion magazines and on tv that are considered pretty are thin, therefore you are only pretty if you are thin. All TV shows are violent. Children who watch violent tv shows are more aggressive than children who don't. )
All the assumptions above were false. Not a single one of them is true. Each and every one of them, without exception, is based on a logical short-cut, biasis, or the individual's own limited experience or interactions.
Some in fact are common stereotypes. Some very dangerous attitudes that case ingrained prejudices to develop.
And most are offensive. You probably went nuts reading a few of them. Laughed at a couple. Would it shock you if I told you that without exception, I've heard someone profess every single solitary one and scarily enough with almost unshakable conviction?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-10-01 06:24 am (UTC)This one is true. Anyone can be taught how to sing. Whether they can sing well is another matter entirely...
no subject
Date: 2005-10-01 01:55 pm (UTC)How do you define "well" or "sing"?
You could say I'm making a faulty assumption based on my definition of "singing" - which is basically opening one's mouth and musical notes coming forth as opposed to just words either yelled or spoken.
I'm a direct contradiction of this. I can't sing. People have tried to teach me. The difficulty - I'm tone death, I can't hear the fluctuations of my own voice, I can hear the fluctuations of other's voices. But not my own. Add to this auditory dyslexia, where certain sounds are not interrpreted in a clear way. So when people attempt to teach me something by repetitive sounds or attempt to show me how to spell a word by sounding it out phonetically - I get confused, mishear.
Could you teach me how to sing, so I could sing in a small casual choir or just for fun? I don't believe so. Am I making a faulty assumption based on experience? Possibly. After all, there may be people out there who are death that can sing, that I don't know about - as well as people who like myself were born tone death.
Now just because someone is tone death, does not mean they can't appreciate singing or music.
Of course, wouldn't it be ironic if everything I just said is a false assumption based on my own experiences.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-01 06:21 pm (UTC);o)
no subject
Date: 2005-10-01 06:32 am (UTC)Anyway, interesting post.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-01 01:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-01 10:12 am (UTC)Yep, I've heard some beauties...
Date: 2005-10-01 12:43 pm (UTC)It's a mistake to make too much of some of this. After all "If a person makes a stupid generality, they must be prejudiced" also belongs on your list.
Some of the beauties I've heard:
1 Catholics aren't Christians.
2 Jews are really atheists.
2 All women are sexually abused by their fathers (This said by one of my nieces as a teen to her whole family including her father, who fortunately had the presence of mind to laugh, "You must really feel left out," instead of smacking her across the room.)
3 All people who are dyslexic can't read very well.
4 Democrats are good, Republicans are evil.
5 Republicans are good, Democrats are evil.
6 All girls are bad at math.
7 All men are either married or gay.
Re: Yep, I've heard some beauties...
Date: 2005-10-01 02:02 pm (UTC)Another one - "All assumptions are bad and evil."
Re: Yep, I've heard some beauties...
Date: 2005-10-01 02:24 pm (UTC)Re: Yep, I've heard some beauties...
Date: 2005-10-07 05:28 am (UTC)Only the good ones! @>)
I don't think so
Date: 2005-10-01 06:28 pm (UTC)I think you've made a faulty assumption. There's no need to consider the reason for the robberies as being inability to feed and care for the number of kids being born. That adds an unnecessary complication.
If 65% of robberies are committed by blacks, aborting black babies reduces the overall number of blacks available to commit the robberies. Simple. I believe that, absurd and reprehensible as it is, was his reasoning.
Re: I don't think so
Date: 2005-10-07 05:26 am (UTC)'Kat says of assumptions, "What's difficult to do is spot them. See where your logic is faulty." I agree, but not so much because I think it's how humans reason--I'd say if you're operating off assumptions, then you're not reasoning. You're substituting what you think you know about something for reasoning about it. To me, the difficulty in recognizing our own assumptions comes from their very nature. The simple fact that it's an assumption means that we don't realize we're making it. Of course, that's based on my idea of what an assumption is. I think it comes out of out of the tendency (need?) to classify things & people, & the desire to think we know about those things & people based on their classification. Be nice if it was that easy, huh? Boring, but nice.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-02 01:17 am (UTC)I've been instructed to type that this assumption is true. Deliver a case of Savory Salmon Feast to my door and I won't get hurt. ;)
Sometimes it seems as if our whole culture runs on faulty assumptions. What's marketing but one big "buy Product X and you'll be cooler, happier, faster, younger, etc."?