Confirmation bias. You simply don’t notice the criminals who don’t look or act the way you’re expecting.
this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2026
-29 points (20.4% liked)
Ask Lemmy
36656 readers
1035 users here now
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Exactamundo. OP expected this guy to be a criminal, and noticed when he did criminal things. How many people has OP assumed weren't criminals based on the way they dressed who got away with whatever scam they were pulling?
I think that's the key to getting to bigots.
Not:
You're falsely accusing people!
They don't give a shit about other people, but:
You're missing other criminals!
Gets their amygdala all riled up
And survivorship bias.
Yeah, that happens a lot. The smart ones just take the product out of the packaging and leave it on the shelf somewhere. I find the things all the time, so I'm definately missing a lot. That's not really what I'm talking about though.
I'm talking about the ones that security chases out of the store, or that try to scam us. They aren't smart about it. Sure, there's plenty of innocent looking scammers and really offputting normal customers, but they aren't all that common from what I've found. I treat everyone the same regardless anyway just in case I'm wrong, but still.
I suppose what I'm finding aren't criminals but rather attempted criminals. I'm guessing they just grew up watching tv and when they got drunk or high enough to think stealing was a good idea, they just copied the aesthetics. Doesn't make having to deal with scammers that smell like they've never used a shower before and smoke a pack of cigaretts a day any better.
I find the things all the time, so I’m definately missing a lot. That’s not really what I’m talking about though.
Which makes your question "Why do a specific subset of criminal folk, that I've defined as looking and acting in a specific fashion, look and act in a similar fashion?"
lol fair
The smart ones just take the product out of the packaging and leave it on the shelf somewhere.
Wait, so they take packaging but not the item? Weird.
/s
Has it occurred to you that if you saw a criminal that didn't fit the stereotype, you might not know it?
Was going to say exactly this. OP's only found the people who're bad at it. The ones who can do it you'll only catch if you're watching inventory as they enter/leave.
Low-hanging fruit. You're noticing the dumbest, easiest-to-recognize scammers and thieves acting how you're anticipating they will...
Hello. I've worked in a few retail stores. Never a supermarket cashier though. I can't say I would lump all criminals as looking the same. I can certainly describe a couple stereotypes, but many fly under the radar.
Ask yourself who perpetrates crimes.
Do they have a job? A steady income? Stability in their life? Confidence about their future? Did they go to college or even complete high school?
Or, are they broke, desperate, possibly with chemically altered cognition, and very likely to have a limited education/understanding about the world?
The fact is - when you don't know much, you look at the world through a very limited perspective. This restricts a person's thinking into a narrow set of tracks that are all the most obvious paths to the goal of quick cash (often, to buy drugs to stave off the DTs for a few more hours). The stereotypical behaviors are the only things that are seemingly possible with a limited education and a chemical addiction.
The reason stereotypes exist is because most humans aren't that creative. Most people, most of the time, will do the same basic things everyone else does in the same basic ways everyone else does it.
The main difference here is that a crook rationalizes their actions and does not properly consider key facts, like the general success rate of robberies. Most of the time, desperation plays a strong enough role as a motivator that you can see these folks telling themselves how they "have to" do this. They'll psyche themselves up in the moments before they decide to act because they need to convince themselves that what they're doing "has to be done" even when they know their odds of success are abysmal.
Small-time crooks are cliche because the underlying reasons behind what made them crooks is always the same three or four things - poor, uneducated, desperate, and (often) addicted to something. The educated crooks are smart enough to get laws passed to make their crimes legal.
That's one way to describe a store manager....
Cause they're ice agents