Stereotyping
We expect members of a group to have certain characteristics without having individual information about that person.
A stereotype is any thought widely adopted about specific types of individuals or certain ways of behaving intended to represent the entire group of those individuals or behaviors as a whole. Stereotypes are both a cause and a consequence of several cognitive biases: the representativeness heuristic leads us to categorize based on resemblance to mental prototypes, while illusory correlation makes us notice and remember group-consistent behavior more readily.
What it looks like in the wild.
- Everyday life Job Interview Bias Interviewers unconsciously rate candidates from prestigious universities higher regardless of individual merit.
Someone has already built a business on this.
Biases are not only private errors. They are design targets — patterns deliberately engineered into interfaces because they reliably work.
- Algorithms and feeds Discriminatory Ad Targeting Ad targeting algorithms that proxy demographic characteristics through behavioral signals reproduce and amplify societal stereotypes in automated hiring and housing ads.
Recognising a definition is not the same skill as spotting it.
Two scenarios from the app, with distractors drawn from the same family of biases — which is what makes them hard.
A manager assumes a remote employee is slacking off because they don't see them online during traditional office hours, not knowing their schedule.
A person assumes that a musician must be disorganized and bad with money, based solely on their profession.
Biases rarely arrive alone.
Understand more. Assume less.
188 biases, 18,869 scenarios, and a record of how you actually decide.
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