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The Stereotype of the Stereotype — LessWrong

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Imagine you landed in a foreign country with dogs, but with no word for dogs. You would see these things, and want to talk about them. You would like to be able to tell people whether they can bring dogs into your house, but you can’t, because there isn’t any word for “dog.” You’d like to ask if you can pet someone’s dog, but you can’t do that either, because when you ask “can I pet your dog?” they say “pet my what?” It would get pretty frustrating. This is how I feel about a certain phenomenon I’ve noticed over the last year or so. I notice it all the time—It’s as ubiquitous in society as dogs are, and I see it just about as often—but there isn’t a word for it. People seem to make the same error of judgement over and over, and I want to talk about this error. There’s a lot I want to say about it. I want to be able to point out when someone is making the mistake. I want to ask people about whether I’m making the mistake. I want to talk about how some people seem to see very clearly, an

x The Stereotype of the Stereotype — LessWrong Rationality Frontpage 58 The Stereotype of the Stereotype by Ike 4th Jun 2025 10 min read 17 58 I want to define a new term that will be useful in the discourse. Imagine you landed in a foreign country with dogs, but with no word for dogs. You would see these things, and want to talk about them. You would like to be able to tell people whether they can bring dogs into your house, but you can’t, because there isn’t any word for “dog.” You’d like to ask if you can pet someone’s dog, but you can’t do that either, because when you ask “can I pet your

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