Summary
Highlights
Our brains are incredibly powerful computational machines that constantly process millions of stimuli every second without conscious effort. For example, upon seeing someone, our brains automatically categorize them into social groups like age, gender, and race, activating associated information based on past experiences.
To manage the vast amount of information, our brains use mental shortcuts called schemas. These are templates of knowledge that organize specific examples into broader categories. An example is identifying a chair: we instantly recognize its properties and know how to interact with it, even if we haven't seen that particular chair before.
Schemas are activated through automatic mental processes, or implicit cognitions, which operate outside conscious awareness and are largely beyond our control. These mental shortcuts are essential for navigating the world efficiently, saving us from expending all mental resources on basic tasks.
While schemas are beneficial for objects, they also apply to people. Our automatic processes lead us to categorize fellow human beings by social categories such as age, role, sex, and race. This raises important questions about whether these automatic processes might lead to unfair treatment or bias when processing information about people.