eli5: what is categorical thinking?
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Categories are made when certain things are grouped together based on common features and are treated as belonging together.
For example, to furnish a house, you could categorize the furniture: seats, lighting, electronics. You could further subcategorize those categories into more specific things: the seats are chairs, a loveseat and a couch, the lighting are table lamps, floor lamps, and ceiling lights, and the electronics are the TV, the DVD player, etc. Or, instead, you could categorize by room: the kitchen, the living room, a bedroom.
Categorical thinking means knowing when to group different things together and treat them as a class. One potential problem with categorical thinking is that it blurs differences between the items. For example, a chair is less comfortable than a couch, and a TV and a DVD player technically do different things even though they’re both electronics.
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