Google Suggest Reveals The Internet's Offensive Religious Stereotypes

[hrmjustin]

Yasmine Hafiz

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Some questions are better left unasked.

A look at the Google Autocomplete suggestions for different religious groups shows that people frequently turn to the search engine to ask the questions they may not want to say out loud. The suggestions generated by frequent searches reveal some of our darkest collective stereotypes and generalizations about people of other faiths, some of which are bizarrely specific.

A recent Pew survey examined how the American public feels about various religious groups, with Jews rated the most warmly and Muslims the most coldly. However, the autocomplete suggestions go beyond indicating mere warmth or coldness, instead uncovering some of the most frequently-typed questions about people of different faiths.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/22/google-suggest-religion_n_5609410.html?utm_hp_ref=religion

[kentauros]

1. And another good reason to never let software second-guess you.

I turn all that stuff off, and am forever shaking my head at why people put up with autocorrect on their phones when it makes the wrong suggestion more often than not.

[bananas]

2. why are taoist vegetarian?

I didn't get any suggestions for "why are taoists",
and only one suggestion for "why are taoist".

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

3. Along with that "why are vegetarians self-righteous"?

The top one on Why are Catholics was "Why are Catholic countries so poor?"

[Union Scribe]

4. I stopped after typing "why"

because that gave me:

"...am I always so tired"
"...is the sky blue"
"...is my poop green"
"...are barns red"

That pretty much scared me off of typing in anything else

[hrmjustin]

5. I got why are fire trucks red.

[bananas]

6. Fire trucks are red, the sky is blue, I'm always so tired, and my poop is green.

The new version of "Roses are red, violets are blue, ..."

[hrmjustin]

7. Lol!