Preconceived judgment is an opinion formed beforehand without adequate evidence. In other words, it refers to a preconceived judgment, opinion or attitude directed toward certain people based on their membership in a particular group. It is a set of attitudes, which supports, causes, or justifies discrimination. Preconceived judgment is a tendency to over categorize.
Preconceived judgment has commonly been used in referring to judgments of one’s race but is also used when referring to sex, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation.
The Evolution of Cognitive Autopilot:
The evolution of Cognitive Bias evolved to save time and energy while at the same time promoting survival. We make so many decisions during the day that it would be taxing on our brains to make every decision in a slow, thoughtful manner. Our brains evolved a similar division of labour. A brain has only a limited amount of processing power. To make the most of that processing power, natural selection favoured mental shortcuts, known as heuristics, for information processing.
For example:
When I ask you what 2 + 2 equals, you can answer with minimal effort. You are using a mental shortcut: instead of adding (1 + 1) and (1 + 1), you are simply using your experience with numbers to come to the shortcut answer of 4.
Cognitive psychologists estimate that we make about 80% of our decisions using these energy-efficient shortcuts; In other words, we make them on autopilot.
We can’t change the cognitive biases, but we can change whether we act on them. Freethinkers are committed to knowing and understanding what’s true. Instead, they default to withholding judgment until they have adequate evidence to accept or reject something.