The first lecture is an introduction to the course of Behavioural Biology.
Professor Robert Sapolsky explains how, as humans, we tend to categorise things because it is easier for us to make sense of information when it is simply categorised. An example would be the colour spectrum of a rainbow: it contains the full colour spectrum, yet, it has been simplified into seven basic colours.
Categorising is a good way to organise information, however, it can have some disadvantages. Overall, it prevents us from seeing the bigger picture. If we categorise a rainbow into seven separate colours we fail to see the full extent of the spectrum.
We can also fail to see how closely related two things are when they are placed in separate categories. How can we realise how closely connected two colours are when we have clearly defined them with different labels? Someone who scores sixty-four (64) on a test fails, yet, someone else with sixty-six (66) passes. Each score is very similar, yet, one is a ‘pass’, and the other a ‘fail’.
The final disadvantage can be confusion in categorising something that we have no label for. The example used is of shapes: triangle; circle; square; and a random shape, which is new to us, has no label and becomes confusing for us when it does not sit perfectly into a category.
Source – Stanford University
