It’s so hard to generalize about the world, especially the people. There is no doubt that a generalized view of something (a society, a human, or an American male, for example) is useful (this has somewhat related to the fact that our mental capacity is limited). However, there hardly is one instance in the surveyed domain that would exactly fit the generalized (or average) view! Finding this exact “average” is relatively easy when there is only one parameter involved. For example, we can find a student with an average math test score most of the times. However, this becomes more unlikely as the number of parameters grow.
I’ve once read in a newspaper several years ago about the “average” Korean with such height, such weight, certain clothes, such income, etc. Did this “average” man exist? It didn’t say, but very unlikely. But people still continue this constant search of an average. And I must say, they do bring some useful, even insightful sometimes, results.
Why did I bring up this thing everybody knows? Because it seems many people often forget a group (or a society) is comprised of individuals. Because people constantly compare themselves (or their personal experiences) to the “average” (mostly what the media portrays) and lay too much weight on it. Because people too often try to fit the individual (the “cause” or the source) into the average (the result or the outcome).
An average implies a distribution and a deviation. Why is it so hard to accept this fact?
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