Stereotypes are heuristics

Stereotypes are definitely heuristics: they don’t require a lot of energy to process, and they’re super-fast. Heck, with a stereotype, you don’t even need to collect data on the thing you’re making a judgement about. As heuristics, stereotypes work . But in this case, and in a lot of cases, stereotypes lead to poorly reasoned conclusions.

Not all heuristics work well in every case. A fast and frugal rule of thumb might help get answers for some problems while predisposing you to make inadequate judgements in other contexts.

Heuristics can be downright dangerous!

Let’s see what those sanitation workers have to say...