The Fallacies of Sterotyping Essay - 558 Words

All people experience stereotypes, whether the stereotype is directed at them or they are the one with the stereotype. While stereotypes can assist in making logical decisions, the fallacies of stereotyping will influence us all unconsciously, can leave people with negative lingering effects, and also misrepresent the individual. The fallacies of stereotyping will mislead people due to the unconscious influence they have on us. In medicine it is not uncommon to utilize stereotypes that are fact based. An example of this is that certain cultures are more predisposed to conditions, compared statistically to other cultures. This can be described with the pre-disposition of the African-American culture to hypertension as compared to the†¦show more content†¦This leads me to stay home and complete my Christmas shopping on line so I don’t have to deal with the attitudes. This causes me to feel bad as I truly enjoy Christmas with all of the lights, seeing family, and just th e experience of the season. My hasty generalization argument is definitely not valid or sound. When you take into account all of the people who are out during that time of year, I came to my conclusion based on very minimal encounters. Using logic, it demonstrates how my argument does not make any sense and demonstrates the lingering effects and negative impact the stereotype I have developed has on my holiday season (Kemick, 2010). The fallacies of stereotyping also mislead people, this leads to people being misrepresented. As an example, I work for the Air Force, the Air Force has the military planes, and therefore I must fly planes because I am in the Air Force. This argument represents not only a stereotype of those in the Air Force; it is an example of an ad hominem fallacy (Mosser, 2011) as it is being assumed that because I work for the Air Force, I must fly planes. The argument while it may be valid is not sound. The reason the argument is not sound is due to the fact that t he majority of Air Force members are employed in a ground based occupation. This could also fall under the fallacy of a hasty generalization due to the assumption (Mosser, 2011)