Advantages of bias and prejudice: an exploration of their neurocognitive templates

Bias is common in mental-processing tasks as diverse as target recognition, heuristic estimation and social judgment. This paper holds that cognitive biases stem from the covert operation of neural modules, which evolved to s ubserve adaptive behavior. Such modules can be innate or forged early in de velopment. Research shows links between (i) biases in cognitive tasks and ( ii) neural devices, which may mediate them. Evidence is included from biase s that arise spontaneously in artificial neural networks during recognition /decision tasks. Two linked propositions follow. First, there are continuit ies in biasing strategies across different levels of cognitive processing. Second, a proclivity for stereotyping and prejudice depends on the biased f unctions of lower-level neural modules that promote adaptations to social e nvironments. The propositions rest on evidence of biological preparedness f or stereotyping and of deficits in social judgment in patients with neurolo gical lesions. To test such claims, research studies are suggested at the b oundary of cognitive neuroscience and social psychology. Advantages of bias and prejudice as evolved tools may include their: (1) speeding of scrutiny and improving of target detection in changing or uncertain situations; (2) aiding of a rapid choice of practical short-term rather than optimal longe r term plans; (3) allowing appraisal of a workable world by creating fairly stable categories; (4) motivating of exploration and completion of problem -solving which might otherwise be abandoned too early. The biological primi ng of social biases need not mean that they are immutable; understanding th em could lead to better ways of controlling them. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.