Conversation

I'm never really sure when to have faith in the patterns people report seeing in society. There's a spectrum - on one end stuff i buy like "i've learned men are really interested in casual sex" and on the other end stuff i don't buy like "all the Hispanics i know are so dirty"...
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Why do I buy one end and not another? Why am I okay with people reporting the men they know are more interested in casual sex but not that hispanics are dirty? Is it just sheer volume of people reporting it - everybody says the first one but only a few people the second?
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The hispanic example can be explained away by selective reporting, seeing what you want to see, reinterpreting patterns to fit your worldview - but why don't I use that to explain away men being interested in causal sex? You could say it's data, which supports one but not another
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And in this case it's really easy to find the obvious data - but data isn't so obvious for other examples. What are some examples of pattern reports that you find to be in the middle of the spectrum - with conflicting data and a good chance that it's true but also maybe not?
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Even better - what's an example of a widely accepted pattern that you think is just selective reporting/bad data/forcing the pattern to fit? And what's an example of a pattern that you think is true but most people refuse to buy into?
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