Leader comment: Why its wrong to call humans '˜Homo sapiens'
Our fondness for assigning random characteristics to names for no good reason explains a lot. The same sort of flawed reasoning is used by racists, xenophobes, anti-semites and the like to demonise other people and rob them of their status as individuals.
Linda Blair, a psychologist, described how our brains have a tendency to create mental ‘shortcuts’ – stereotypes – to help deal with information overload, adding that this was a “real problem in today’s world”.
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Sometimes, we really do fail to live up to the name we gave ourselves, Homo sapiens, the ‘wise’ humans. Maybe it’s time to be a bit more humble and recognise our shortcomings by changing our name to Homo insipiens.