A friend of mine had posted an article to my timeline, the topic of which we had been discussing at an earlier time. The article is entitled:
"Religious children are meaner than their secular counterparts, study finds."
My family member, being a person of faith, was a bit hurt by the title. She brought up a very good point in that the title makes a sweeping generalization that, while possibly accurate, does not describe each and every person of faith. When research is distilled into articles for the general public, it is not usually mentioned that the research in no way describes people at the individual level.
Additionally, the word "meaner" isn't entirely accurate here. The study itself focused on empathy (or lack thereof) and judgement of others--which may not exactly be best described by the term "meanness."
I think it is important for us all to remember that even though it seems like groups as a whole tend to be portrayed or behave in a certain way, that does not mean that every person within that group does.
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