ExSampled Out

original:
"Eine Gruppe von Menschen wird immer
 nach ihren auffälligsten Subjekten beurteilt"
 
translated:
"Any group of people gets always seen by
 the views about theirs being noticed most".
 (seen = estimated/judged, view = image/impression)

The Making Of

This (not yet famous) wording is mine AFAIR - it based on two major sources both back at the end of the 1990ies and assembled by me into a compact format that transpires a lot of different philosophical levels. Try to discuss the sides on a party, everyone has another note to make about what's in it.

The first source is about the internet hype of the late 1990ies and research about attention management. In that time the effects of advertisement were evaluated in the light of the modern web technology. And the internet startups were given great wealths of money - which they did burn quickly as we remember. However, we have been noticed about the relationship of actual impressions and the derived judgement about the whole category of the topic of a group of advertisers. It turns out that impressions are weighted differently where some can overshadow others even when showed/told fewer times but more "sensational".

The second source goes to prejudice and ethnic conflicts in schools in northern germany. The speaker has already picked up some of the (widely known) features of "attention" mechanisms. It was known before that young people are always trouble makers in a way and they draw their actions generally on the most easy targets - which was dubbed "outsiders" in the research before. With the "attention" research at hand we know that it need not be a single person - even a whole group can be marked "outside" of one's own group. And marked with colorful attributions that might diverge from the actual impressions seen.

Hints

Group of Groups

It is unimportant whether the "membership" to a group is self-declared, lawfully assigned, given my visible / audible marks (incl. cloth), or parts of the C.V. heard or read (incl. birthname). Something else to group people into?

Ranking an Impression

The impression must be ranked high enough to atleast reach the state of gossip / hearsay / rumours / untestified news. The reasons are manifold. In general it is remarkable different to a comparison "non-group", mostly you and your self-esteemed group assignment(s). There is no strict relation of creating the rank as to just the absolute time or just the absolute count of the impression(s). Higher ranks are spread more swiftly and remembered longer?

Statistics and Rules

Humans have the tendency to overrate reoccurrences and making them into rules of reoccurrence. They inject reasoning and "hidden cause" to a known correlation in a statistics view. They project the data and assume a model behind it. Still the sciences say that a correlation of two scales is just a correlation a correlation fo two scales - which has no "direction" between them. The actual cause of the correlation are often third or fourth properties influencing the two currently charted. Still the human mind works differently and projects on the viewed data alone.

Social Adaption

How do you minimize risks in life? In knowing details of developments and the rules they follow. How do you maximize profits in life? In knowing details of developments and the rules they follow. You want to the project an expected reaction to an action of yourself. People hunt for rules and associated early characteristics that point to them even before seeing them happening. Now what's an early observeable characteristic?

Examples, Series and Exceptions

Count up examples - both experienced and by hearsay. Do you set them as series with a common cause? Do you set some of them as exceptions not belonging to the series? Why? Do see common attributions correlated within the parts in the example set? What is a "hidden example"?

Good Prejudices

Are prejudices a good thing or bad thing? What means higher probabilities in correlation to observed characteristic? How much time do you spend on average to get to know a person crossing your way while shopping? Can a neighbour in a room present a hazard? Do you part the guests in a room into higher and lower probabilities? So do you know them all? Always?

Family Bonds

At a family procedure - do you hate it to be compared to your brother and cousins? Are people comparing you more quickly to those with whom you have been raised together? What about school mates that you did play with but which have found to be guilty of some crime a while later? Perhaps even done while you knew him day to day?