"The human brain is a classification machine (it has to be to survive), but it can also be incredibly lazy. Psychologists call it heuristics: those quick, energy-saving shortcuts that let you spot patterns and threats without thinking too hard about them. They're efficient in the wild, when a rustle in the grass might mean danger, but in a coffee shop, they mostly just expose how fast we build bullshit stories about people we've never met."
"Of course, I mostly fit the same description as that officer: I'm middle-aged, white, veteran, bearded, tattooed. I could've been the guy someone else quietly assumed was itching for a fight about the flag. In fact, I know I have been. Stereotypes don't disappear just because you happen to fit the category they've placed you in. They keep multiplying until everyone's sorted, and no one's understood."
"There's a term for one of the ways that shows up: the out-group homogeneity effect. It's the tendency to think "they" are all the same while "we" are individuals. Social psychologists have been watching it unfold in labs for decades through what's known as the minimal group paradigm - experiments showing that people will favor their own group almost immediately, even when the division between groups is arbitrary."
Human brains are classification machines that rely on heuristics to save energy, spotting patterns and threats quickly. Heuristics function well in dangerous natural environments but often produce misleading narratives in social settings. Stereotypes form rapidly and persist even when individuals fit stereotyped categories, multiplying until people are sorted and misunderstood. The out-group homogeneity effect causes observers to see members of other groups as uniform while viewing their own group as varied. Minimal group experiments show immediate in-group favoritism from arbitrary divisions. Authoritarian leaders exploit these tendencies by promoting clear, divisive identities that feel safer than complexity.
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