Are Stereotypes Inherently Problematic?
• John Vandivier
tldr; no
Statistical discrimination is often useful. False stereotypes are problematic, but they are problematic because they are false, not because they are stereotypes. True stereotypes are useful.
Below I paste a comment from a video by Epydemic2020. His video criticizes the use of the term 'mansplaining':
\"Stereotypes are inherently problematic\" nah. If the stereotype is true it acts as a heuristic; priming a person to think along lines of truth False stereotypes are bad, true stereotypes are good; mainly they act as a kind of statistical discrimination, which is often useful along lines of productivity-oriented decision making and so on Stereotypes are by no means \"confirmation bias.\" Confirmation bias occurs ex post an observation, stereotypes \"prime a person to think,\" in your words. That means it would be ex ante an observation. It is what we would call a prior in bayesian logic. A prior is quite other than confirmation bias. All that being said, I do agree with some of your particular criticism of the term 'mansplaining.' It has become a weapon of misandric feminists and others who would like to censor communication on the grounds of a red herring.