Comment by SirMaster
14 days ago
But what if you remove the word "genetically"?
I think there are a lot of people who would say "Indian people are better at math" and not even think about why they think that or why it might even be true.
In my opinion, most biases have some basis in reality. Otherwise where else did they come from?
Well, the stereotype of Indian people being good at math specifically was itself a consequence of survivorship bias, that emerged from observing Indian visa holders who were hired based on their skills and credentials, and who were not at all representative of the average person in India.
There is a BIG difference between biases being based in reality (which they're not), and biases being based in our varying perceptions of reality, which are themselves biased.
OK, but like for me when someone says "Indian people are better at math", my mind basically says to myself, "OK, the average Indian person in the USA (the ones that they and I see and interact with) is better at math than the average person".
Because in my mind, that's the environment the person making that claim was in, so I just kind of automatically include that in my interpretation of their statement.
I don't think they are making a generalized statement that that Indian people are genetically better at math. I think they are making a statement that they perceive that average Indian person that they run into is better at math than the average person they run into. And maybe they are right, and maybe there is a reason based in reality why that is.
It sounds like that is somewhat true based on what you said about the visas.
I never take any of these things to have anything to do with genetics. To me it's always due to some external factor like the visas as you mentioned, or even maybe just like a cultural thing where they are pushed harder to be good at something as they go through school, and so are better at something than the average person in the end.
It's great that you personally don't generalize it into a stereotype about Indian people, but that is not what a stereotype is, and "Indian people are good at math" is the stereotype, not "high skilled Indian visa holders working in the US are good at math".
That's a dangerous path to go down. I've encountered many biases that I don't feel are especially reflective of reality. These range from dumb (women are poorer drivers than men) to extremely harmful (black persons are stupid and lazy).
I for one would not be prepared to defend the persistent bias against black persons and immigrants as having a basis in reality. YMMV.