The concept of The Ladder of Inference is often used as a means to understand how people interpret culture or form an opinion. What exactly is the Ladder of Inference ?

It describes how we make sequential interpretationsnfrom a set of observations, form beliefs, and then commit to take actions based on those beliefs. It is as if we rapidly climb up a mental ladder,drawing conclusions on our own, with little or no data to actually support these conclusions. Finally, we end up taking actions based on these conclusions . Withou discounting the value of intuition and judgment, based as it is on limited or no data, the ladder of inference is a pitfall to watch out for as it almost always causes breakdown of communication or an inaccurate judgment.