Expertise in one domain does not prevent stereotyped thinking in others

Evidence

While most of us have learned to be critical and open-minded in certain regions of experience we obey the law of least effort in others. A doctor will not be swiped by folk generalizations concerning arthritis, snake bite, or the efficacy of aspirin. But he may be content with overgeneralizations concerning politics, social insurances, or Mexicans … Life is just too short to have differentiated concepts about everything. A few pathways are enough for us to walk in. (p. 173) Because, by definition, people are experts in different and limited domains, a logical consequence of Allport’s view is that most social concepts are underdifferentiated. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1159

While most of us have learned to be critical and open-minded in certain regions of experience we obey the law of least effort in others. A doctor will not be swiped by folk generalizations concerning arthritis, snake bite, or the efficacy of aspirin. But he may be content with overgeneralizations concerning politics, social insurances, or Mexicans … Life is just too short to have differentiated concepts about everything. A few pathways are enough for us to walk in. (p. 173) Because, by definition, people are experts in different and limited domains, a logical consequence of Allport’s view is that most social concepts are underdifferentiated. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1159

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Allport’s point that expertise is domain-specific — a doctor who dodges folk fallacies about arthritis still stereotypes Mexicans — undermines the comforting myth that smart, educated people are exempt. It reframes bias not as ignorance but as a strategic allocation of a finite cognitive budget.
• QUESTION: The doctor example predates modern dual-process theory; worth checking whether contemporary evidence on cognitive reflection or expert anchoring either corroborates or complicates the claim that expertise is cleanly siloed by domain.
• SEED: Essay angle: ‘Life is too short to have differentiated concepts about everything’ — how the cognitive economy account of prejudice reframes the standard ‘if only they were educated’ anti-prejudice remedy as misguided.
• CANDY: The doctor-who-believes-about-Mexicans example is a vivid, quotable portrait of domain-limited rational skepticism.
• XREF: Connects to Allport’s ‘law of least effort’ as it reappears in modern work on accuracy motivation and political motivated reasoning. — connects to: Mass-level genius cannot substitute for specific local knowledge — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 2064; Mental capacities distribute across life along a differentiated web, not a rank — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 502
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 1159; , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1159