SOME USEFUL TERMINOLOGY about generalisations

Bias is disproportionate weight in favour of or against an idea or thing, usually in a way that is closed-minded, prejudicial, or unfair. Biases can be innate or learned. People may develop biases for or against an individual, a group, or a belief. In science and engineering, a bias is a systematic error

 Stereotype: a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing, "the stereotype of the woman as the carer".

 Schema (singular) schemata (plural): In psychology and cognitive science, a schema describes a pattern of thought or behaviour that organizes categories of information and the relationships among them. A schema is a workflow or storyboard that tells you what to do in a recurring situation. For example, when you go shopping you might follow an internal script to make shopping more efficient: you pick the same products in the same sequence every time. You know in advance what you will buy, there are no decisions involved, in fact you ignore all alternative products. A schema allows you to navigate familiar, recurrent and similar situations by following the same sequence of actions

 A heuristic is a mental shortcut that our brains use that allows us to make decisions quickly without having all the relevant information. They can be thought of as rules of thumb that allow us to make a decision that has a high probability of being correct without having to think everything through.

 A heuristic consists of preferences that help you decide in a situation where you do not have enough information or do not care enough to make an informed decision. For example, when you want to buy yoghurt, but are no nutritionist, you might decide on which yoghurt you buy by the familiarity of the brand name (you prefer the familiar, this is called the familiarity heuristic) and other aspects that have nothing to do with the yoghurt itself.

Unconscious bias: An unconscious bias (also called Implicit bias) refers to attitudes and beliefs that occur outside of our conscious awareness and control.

 Identity politics: tendency for people of a particular religion, race, social background, etc., to form exclusive political alliances, moving away from traditional broad-based party politics.

Cancel culture or call-out culture is a modern form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles – whether it be online, on social media, or in person. Those subject to this ostracism are said to have been "cancelled".