2. Over-Generalization

The six main influences mentioned in the previous pattern (evolution of human species, human nature, social and cultural environment, family environment, education and personal factor) are all involved in the origin and formation of this pattern. Below is a brief account of the relationship between these influences and the pattern of over-generalization. Humans need to understand and relate to the world. However, due to limitations of all kinds, both the ability to know and the amount of relevant information are often inadequate. In order to be more efficient in decision- making and reduce the complexity of the matters that need to be attended to in life, we tend to focus our energy and attention on things that are crucial for survival and self-interest. Over-simplification (over-generalization and deduction) naturally becomes a way to achieve this. It manifests as ‘equating one thing or a part to the whole’ or ‘equating once or a few times to every time’. Over-generalization is an irrational way to make a judgment or come to a conclusion. In this process we label people or things and this labeling makes a deep impression. Once the labeling is established, it becomes an important point of reference. It can be referenced without proper examination and deliberation and used to form a stereotype. Why is it that stereotypes are mostly negative? This is due to our instinct to ’seek benefit (interest) and avoid harm’. It encourages us to remember and be vigilant toward those who can threaten our safety or survival. Say you are living in a tribal era. One day you accidentally enter the territory of another tribe and get attacked and injured by a member of that tribe. What should you do?

1) Do you separate that particular person from the tribe? This means you will forgive this person but be extremely cautious around him, and continue to trust and love other members of the tribe.

2) Do you use your experience with this one person as the basis upon which to judge the rest of the tribe? This would inevitably lead to the conclusion that people in this tribe are aggressive and the decision to maintain a high level of vigilance when interacting with this tribe.

What would be your choice? If you are acting from your instinct and from your understanding of reality, the chance of choosing the 2nd option would probably be higher.

The formation of the pattern of over-generalization is complex. The above is only a simple and brief account of one of its aspects.

Over-generalization refers to using one thing or one aspect of a thing to view or judge the whole. It can manifest in many ways. Let’s look at a few examples.

1) Personal Projection

Projection is unconsciously imposing one’s own mental or psychological idiosyncracies on what we see. One person might always see the good side of other people because positivity, friendliness and openness characterize her disposition. On the other hand, another person might tend to see other people in a negative light, even when they do good deeds, if it’s that person’s tendency to doubt motivation and distrust people. Projection is a common tendency; what we see in other people often reflects certain characteristics or qualities of our own. If an unconscious projection is left unexamined, it could potentially lead to the so-called ‘halo effect’ in psychology, a type of ‘cognitive bias’. (Halo effect as a cognitive bias refers to an observer's overall impression of a person, company, brand, or product influencing the observer's feelings and thoughts about that entity's character or properties.- Wikipedia)

2) First Impression

First impressions can be formed when seeing or getting to know something or someone for the first time. It can become the dominant view of that person or thing as its impact can be deep and long-lasting. Despite the fact that the information gathered from the first contact is usually limited and often superficial, and sometimes to some extent even false, it can be heavily relied upon as the base for processing all future information pertaining to the same subject. In other words, once a first impression is formed, information obtained later often serves as supplementary material or evidence to back up and reinforce the first impression. Therefore we can say first impressions provide fertile ground for over-generalization. This is also why many people exert a lot of effort trying to leave a good first impression.

3) Stereotype

Stereotyping refers to assigning traits to a group of people and labeling the entire group with the traits, for example, stereotyping farmers as ‘people wearing dirty clothes and toiling’, or business people as ‘caring only about money’. It often starts with identifying characteristics of a group of people to get to know them. However, stereotyping is an over-simplified way to do this, and often does not reflect the truth and can be negative. We can say it is a form of bias as it is not based on objective, comprehensive evidence. Each individual can process a stereotype in his own way to ‘justify’ it. Over-generalization and stereotyping work ‘well’ together to form a view that is narrow and twisted and far from the truth.

3) Judging a Person by Appearance

a. A person must be poor because the clothes he wears are old and cheap.

b. You dislike a person because she resembles someone you dislike.

c. An Asian looking man is Chinese.

d. A man with tattoos and riding a motorbike must be a gang member.在中国的传统

Confucius is regarded as one of the saints in Chinese culture. He had many students. Zai Yu was an eloquent speaker so he left a good impression with Confucius. However, as time went on, his true character gradually revealed itself. He had a low level of integrity and was very lazy. He often stayed in bed and slept during the day instead of attending class or studying. Confucius told him off by saying he was ‘a piece of rotten wood that cannot be carved’.

Zi Yu, another student of Confucius, had a rather unattractive look and physique. When he first wanted to follow Confucius, Confucius thought he was not intelligent and talented enough. He thought the chance of Zi Yu becoming an outstanding person was slim. However, day after day, Zi Yu applied what he learned diligently and demonstrated a high level of integrity. When Zi Yu visited the Yangtze River, 300 pupils followed him. He was held in high regard by the local governers and everyone spoke highly of him. When Confucius learned about this, he said, ‘I judged Zai Yu by his words, and I was wrong about his character and ability; I judged Zi Yu by his appearance, and I was wrong again.’

4) Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

The phenomenon of a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ has long been observed. A person’s biased view or judgment about another person can influence that person’s behaviour. For example, when you are suspicious of someone for a prolonged period of time, that person will sense your suspicion and become vigilant and distant from you. You, in turn, interpret that behaviour as evidence to support your view or judgment. A biased view about a person can lead to behaviour that confirms the bias and reinforces it. A cycle can form and the bias will keep getting strengthened. This is often how over-generalization manifests.

To sum up, over-generalization is best exemplified by the story of the Blind Men and the Elephant parable.

(https://wildequus.org/2014/05/07/sufi-story-blind-men-elephant/)

In a distant village, a long time ago, there lived six blind men. One day the villagers announced, “Hey, there is an elephant in the village today.”

They had never seen or felt an elephant before and so decided, “Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway.” And thus they went down to the village to touch and feel the elephant to learn what animal this was and they described it as follows:

“Hey, the elephant is a pillar,” said the first man who touched his leg.

“Oh, no! it is like a rope,” argued the second after touching the tail.

“Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree,” the third man spouted after touching the trunk.

“It is like a big hand fan” said the fourth man feeling the ear.

“It is like a huge wall,” sounded the fifth man who groped the belly .

“It is like a solid pipe,” Said the sixth man with a tusk in his hand.

They all fell into heated argument as to who was right in describing the big beast, all sticking to their own perception. A wise sage happened to hear the argument, stopped and asked them “What is the matter?” They said, “We cannot agree on what the elephant is like.”

The wise man then calmly said, “Each one of you is correct; and each one of you is wrong. Because each one of you only touched a part of the elephant’s body. Thus you only have a partial view of the animal. If you put your partial views together, you will get an idea of what an elephant looks like.”

The formation of the pattern of over-generalization is actually somewhat related to the deep-seated cognitive need to know the whole picture in order to have better control of it. When we try to know something, we tend to organically connect its different parts or different qualities and form a totality or unity. For example, with our eyes closed, we only need the smell of a banana to restore the complete impression of a banana in the brain. Experiences fill the gap for other characteristics such as the colour, taste, feel of the skin and shape. Due to the cognition of totality, we are able to ‘tell it is a leopard from seeing a small patch of its fur’ without knowing and perceiving every part of the leopard.

Our past cognitive and perceptive experience will naturally be invoked and applied in the process of constructing our knowledge of a person. For example, if a person is showing a lot of zeal, we naturally feel that she is also friendly, warm- hearted, humorous, willing to help and easy to get along with. If someone comes across as ‘cold’, we tend to think she is lonely, stubborn, rigid, unwilling to connect with others and difficult to get along with. In this sense we only need the quality of ‘zeal’ or ‘cold’ and all the associated qualities automatically fill the gap.

Furthermore, over-generalization can sometimes help us know a person’s inner qualities such as personality traits from what can be observed and vice versa. In terms of personality traits, certain traits are closely related. For example, the traits of braveness and integrity are often related to the traits of honesty and willingness to take responsibility. People with these personality traits often come across as being sincere, dignified, open-minded and natural. On the contrary, the traits of self- centeredness and lack of respect can often be observed as being pretentious, insincere, cunning, dishonest, fawning, imperious and arrogant. Although over- generalizing in this way can help us know more about a person, there is still a likelihood of misjudgment.

Features of over-generalization

1) Blindness (Blocking; Overlooking)

Over-generalizatin from a single characteristic to the whole can lead to failure to see the objective truth. Rational thinking can be lacking and blind faith can dominate. This can often be seen in people who are madly in love, especially love at first sight. A strong attraction, whether to appearance or to anything else, can generate strong feelings, making the person seem perfect in every way. Important things such as the personality, values and integrity can be overlooked or possible problems can be ignored or justified. However, as time goes on, ‘the best gift from God’ will be put to the test and truth will be revealed. The opposite is also commonplace. We can easily overlook the positive qualities of a person when we have formed a negative impression about this person.

2) Superficiality

A superficial thing can often be used to generalize because it is easily recognized or makes an immediate impression. Sometimes it doesn’t even have any real connection with the truth of the whole; the generalization is made mainly by association or imagination. In other words, a superficiality blocks the truth. For example, a handsome man dressed in a very smart way is often seen as a decent gentleman; a person with a smiley face is often seen as a kind person; a person with an unappealing look is often associated with negative qualities. An overall impression made by connecting aspects that are not necessarily related certainly will not reflect the truth.

3) Association

An attitude towards a person can affect the attitude toward people or things that are around that person. In Chinese, there are sayings such as ‘love for the house extends even to the crows perching on its roof’ and ‘those who dislike monks also hate monkish vestments’.

Our attitudes, likes and dislikes, towards someone can spread to others by association. Hate for a person can become hate for his family, his religion, the place where he lives, even his country and culture.

Although over-generalization has some validity and necessity, by and large it can hamper our effort to see the objective truth of reality and to relate to the world in a healthy way. This pattern can contribute to the formation of many life problems. Let’s look at some possible replacement patterns that can be used to change it.

1) Refrain from Judging People by Appearance

“You see a person whose clothes are very old and whose appearance is neglected and you think he must be poor, lazy and maybe stupid. The quality of life must be low.”

Examine how we make unreasonable connections between things. How do we connect old clothes, lower income and laziness? Make an effort to see if there is a real or valid connection. Recognize that using a superficial observation to infer unrelated inner qualities can be extremely biased and unfair. We should be more vigilant when making this type of connection. We need to establish the habit of shifting attention away from the superficial. When it comes to knowing a person, it is always advisable that we sincerely make a heart-to-heart connection and get to know the real personality and qualities of the person. This way we will be able to understand why the person is the way he is. This is how we can avoid the negative consequences of the halo effect. We also need to examine the values we hold. What does it mean to be ‘poor’? Is the economic status the only way to judge ‘poor’? Can a person be economically disadvantaged but feel very rich on the nonmaterial plane, enjoying a lot of love and strong satisfaction from fulfilling the purpose of life?

2) First Impressions Shouldn’t Last Forever.

Your new neighbor just moved in. You don’t think he’s a friendly person because he didn’t greet you. You decide that this new neighbor is a closed person who doesn’t want to socialize so there is no point in being friendly.

Understand how a first impression is formed and how it affects our views and judgments. Identify the first impression used in a specific judgment. Examine whether it is necessary to revise the judgment or to weaken or even completely cancel the first impression in order to reflect truth. It is essential to be open-minded and prepare to receive more information and change our views.

3) Avoid Stereotyping and Labeling,

He is a supporter of a particular political party so he must be stupid, no conscience, selfish and full of hate.

Recognize the fact that every person is different; every person is in a different situation and has different needs; every person is multi-faceted and different from others in every way. Hardly anyone can fit into a particular stereotype. Examine how a judgment or view is based on a stereotype and how, consequently, it can be false or twisted. Be open-minded and prepared to revise or change a view or judgment. Look deeper to see the truth better when trying to understand someone or something.

Be vigilant about the role halo effect plays in your judgment, especially when holding a strong negative view or opinion of someone. Remind yourself to examine your attitude and behaviour towards that person to see whether the halo effect has played a part. If it has, look in a more objective and fair way and adjust your view and opinion.

4) Avoid Jumping to Conclusions

Seeing that this was the second time your son broke a plate in a week, you say to him, ‘You are so careless. You are such a careless person.’

Recognize that a few occurrences are not sufficient to form a conclusive opinion or judgment about someone. It is unfair and no one likes to be treated unfairly. This way of dealing with things does not help solve any problems. On the contrary, it can create more problems. It is also important to recognize that every person can change. Play a constructive role if possible to help people make change. For example, immediately ask your child in a calm and caring manner if he feels okay or if he is injured. If everything is fine, you can make a suggestion about how he can avoid breaking a plate again.

5) Stick to the Facts or Evidence

Your son promised you that he would clean his room over the weekend. However, the weekend has come and gone and his room is still a mess. You are very upset and say to him, ‘You NEVER keep your promises’.

Recognize that every person has the right to be treated respectfully and fairly. It is therefore important to be accurate when it comes to describing what a person has done. A view or judgment needs to be based on fact or evidence. Stick to the facts of what has happened and avoid using extreme or exaggerated language that twists the truth. Making false accusations cannot help resolve a problem or conflict; it can have the opposite effect.

Over-generalization can obscure the truth, causing our judgments and views to be flawed or incomplete and harming our relationships with other people. It is therefore crucial to be vigilant of the activity of this pattern. When problems arise and we try to deal with them, it is necessary to examine whether this pattern has played a part and if change is necessary.

When changing this pattern, the effort to be fair and objective is essential. Using Five Xin to keep us open-minded, loving, respectful and less judgmental can also be very effective for changing this pattern.