seemingly random
Diamond Member
- Oct 10, 2007
- 5,281
- 0
- 0
I can't argue that my sample isn't small (minute, really) in comparison to the total population. This argument could be used to call into doubt just about any argument made here on p&n. For example, if I say I read X in some publication to make some argument, the publication could be called into doubt. This is something I've given quite a bit of thought to and have no solution. I'm often amused when someone here vigorously defends some position with commercial or gov't publications. They could be inaccurate by accident or design. Take any statement made by the white house press secretary. How much credence should it be given?Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
...
I have never witnessed that among rural people under about 70, though a Pakistani friend of mine did have trouble in downtown Toledo on a couple of occasions.
Do some research on the availability heuristic and the cognitive biases that it can create. The representativeness heuristic, which is related, is also potentially in play here.
I'm not saying that all rural people are open-minded or accepting. Just that it's absolutely ridiculous (and frankly discriminatory) to believe that "most" of them are somehow bigoted. Even if you saw an incident of bigotry once each week, you interact with perhaps 50-100 different people in a week so while the incident stands out, it really only indicates a prevalence of 1-2%. A far cry from "most". I'm willing to grant that 10%, maybe even 20-25% of rural folks are bigoted, but even at 25%, which I believe it a gross over-statement, we're not even close to "most".
ZV
And then there's the polls of 1000 or 5000 people that supposedly take the temperature of the country...
Nevertheless, my experience is that rural (usually, less educated) people in ohio are in many ways good people but still somewhat racist. This does indeed apply to mainly older people (>50) but I've noticed this attitude in 'some' younger folks (also, less educated).
In the future, you, and anyone else who cares, can assume that opinions I give are from my experience, real or imagined, and, unless noted, are not the result of sophisticated data gathering or sampling.