How we meet the future

Generalising is a natural mental shortcut where we use past experiences to make sense of new situations.

For example, a child might assume all dogs are friendly based on their pet golden retriever.

Overgeneralising, however, is making broad assumptions without sufficient evidence, like believing all XL Bully dogs (a breed recently banned in the UK) are dangerous after one incident.

While overgeneralising can lead to harmful mistakes, generalising itself is not a bias but a useful cognitive tool.

It helps us structure our experiences and focus on new information by ignoring irrelevant details.

The article highlights that the problem lies not in generalising but in making unwarranted leaps beyond the evidence we have.