Consider a gaussian trait with high levels stigmatized. From a careless observer’s perspective, +1s will be rare (somewhat hiding), +2s extremely rare (thoroughly hiding), +3s nonexistant (very hiding *and* rare to begin with) but +4s unable to hide and in fact talked about incessantly on the news / clickbait / juicy rumor mill. Which looks like there are two populations, a large left-skewed one and an entirely distinct but much smaller one. The trait at [-3,+1] and at +4 may not even look that qualitatively similar! So our observer uses a categorical model.
It’s the wrong model. The trait is gaussian. That’s the scenario.
So we have a category for people who are high in our trait with neither natural place nor social consensus on where draw a border line. This will be bad for all discourse on the subject.
An almost example here, with the valence reversed, is human intelligence in general at both the low and high end, since the trait is likely to be gaussian due to the additivity of genome effects + randomness in what genes you get.
Law of Extremity does some weirder stuff...
Consider a gaussian trait with high levels stigmatized. From a careless observer’s perspective, +1s will be rare (somewhat hiding), +2s extremely rare (thoroughly hiding), +3s nonexistant (very hiding *and* rare to begin with) but +4s unable to hide and in fact talked about incessantly on the news / clickbait / juicy rumor mill. Which looks like there are two populations, a large left-skewed one and an entirely distinct but much smaller one. The trait at [-3,+1] and at +4 may not even look that qualitatively similar! So our observer uses a categorical model.
It’s the wrong model. The trait is gaussian. That’s the scenario.
So we have a category for people who are high in our trait with neither natural place nor social consensus on where draw a border line. This will be bad for all discourse on the subject.
What sort of model do you have in mind here, a liability-threshold one with a deviancy variable + bad-luck variable?
Could you give a real-world example of this (or a place where you suspect this may be happening)?
An almost example here, with the valence reversed, is human intelligence in general at both the low and high end, since the trait is likely to be gaussian due to the additivity of genome effects + randomness in what genes you get.