As long as we exercise reasonable care, generalizing serves us well.
Unfortunately, it is easy to overgeneralize—that is, to ascribe to all the members of a group what fits only some members. If you visit New York
City and meet a few rude people, you would be correct in saying, “Some
New Yorkers are rude,” but not “Most New Yorkers are rude,” let alone
New Yorkers are rude,” Yet such sweeping generalizations are heard
every day, not only about New Yorkers, but also about liberals, conservatives, born-again Christians, politicians, homosexuals，feminists, environmentalists, intellectuals, and many other groups.
只要我们练习合理的注意，概括也为我们服务。不幸的是，过度概括是容易的——即是，将所有仅适合一个群体的某些成员的东西归因为所有成员。如果你去纽约城并且遇见一些粗鲁的人，你会错误地说：“一些纽约人是粗鲁的。”但不是“大部分纽约人都是粗鲁的。”更不能说纽约人是粗鲁的。”尽管这种彻底的概括每天都被听见，不仅关于美国人，还关于自由主义者，保守主义者，重生的基督教徒，政治家，同性恋者，女权主义者，人类生态学者，知识分子，和许多其他组织。
A stereotype is an overgeneralization that is especially resistant to
change. The most common types of stereotypes are ethnic and religious.
There are stereotypes of Jews, Poles, African Americans, Hispanics,
Italians, fundamentalists, Catholics, atheists—and “dead, white, European males,” or DWEMs. As you might expect, any generalization that is fixed and unbending can be considered a stereotype. Although stereotypes may be either positive or negative, they are more often negative. Sadly,people who deplore the negative stereotyping of their own groups often do not hesitate to negatively stereotype other groups.
陈规旧见是种特别抗拒变化的过度概括。最普遍的陈规旧见是民族的和宗教的。有关犹太人，波兰人，非洲裔美国人，西班牙裔，意大利人，原教旨主义者，天主教徒，无神论者的陈规旧见——还有“死亡的，白色的，欧洲男性”或者DWEM们。正如你可能期待的那样，任何固定的，不易变更的概括都可能被认为是陈规旧见。尽管陈规旧见可能是积极地或者消极的，但它们一般是消极的。不幸的是，悲叹自己群体的消极陈规旧见的人经常不假思索的对其他群体使用陈规旧见。
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