- When we act upon our inferences as though they were facts, we invite problems of misunderstanding, miscommunication, and worse.
- We are much more prone to see similarities than differences. This often results in our thinking in terms of categories, labels, and classifications rather than the specific or individual item we're concerned with. This tendency to generalize, and difficulty in recognizing differences, leads to stereotyping, biases, and prejudices.
- The ability to differentiate, or see fine differences, is the mark of the expert, the teacher, the trainer, the coach.
- We can apply this process of abstracting (or evaluating) to increase awareness of our own behaviors and minimize the effects of fear, pain, anticipation, anxiety, etc.
- It's not unusual for individuals to respond to words or symbols in ways that are not appropriate or productive.
- We are also susceptible to seeing and feeling differently about 'something' depending on what words or images are associated with the 'something' we're concerned with.
- We can think of words and language as 'maps' that are used to relate our experiences. As a good map must accurately fit the territory it attempts to represent, our words and language should be used with care to accurately fit our experiences. However, it's easy for a careless mapmaker to distort or misrepresent a region of a map, and in the same way it's easy for each of us, whether intentionally or carelessly, to use words to distort or misrepresent our experiences or thoughts.
- Humor often exploits recognizable stereotypes, which can help us recognize our biases and indiscriminate judgments.
more Behavioral Consequences, p. 1
more Behavioral Consequences, p. 3 
