Page 177 - The Social Animal

Social Cognition 159

suppose that every time the library received some new books that
didn’t fit its previous cataloging system, a librarian renumbered and
recataloged all the books in the library. The “HM251s” (social psy-
chology books) were changed suddenly to “AP57s” and the “BFs”
(psychology) were now divided into the “EAs” and the “DBs.” It
would probably take the librarian years to recatalog the books. When
you show up to research your term paper on social cognition, you
would find it nearly impossible to locate the books and articles you
need; the library would be a place of utter confusion. To keep the li-
brary operating and coherent, it makes sense to modify only slightly
the current cataloging system and fit the new books into the old sys-
tem. Similarly, to keep our minds operating and coherent, it makes
sense to practice cognitive conservatism and to modify only slightly
our cognitive categories.
However, as we have seen throughout this chapter, cognitive
conservatism has its costs. The misuse of inappropriate categories
may cause a person to distort events or to miss important informa-
tion. The misapplication of a heuristic can lead to poor decision
making.The failure to update our conception of the world in the face
of new and discrepant information can result in a mistaken picture
of reality. The consequences are not just mental but can show their
face in social problems that we call racism, sexism, prejudice, and just
plain stupid thinking.
What can we do to avoid the negative consequences of cogni-
tive conservatism? Here are four rules of thumb that might help.
First, be wary of those who attempt to create your categories and
definitions of the situations. There are many ways to define and
label a person or event. Ask yourself, “Why is this particular label
being suggested?” Second, try to use more than one way to catego-
rize and describe a person or event. By seeing a person or event in
a number of different ways, we do not rely on a single category that
we then misemploy—bending and twisting the data so that they fit
a preconceived notion. Third, try to think of persons and important
events as unique; although they are members of a particular salient
category (say, a given race or gender), they are also members of many
other categories and have their own unique attributes. Individuation
can help prevent the overuse of a given stereotype or heuristic. Fi-
nally, when forming an impression, consider the possibility that you
might be mistaken—that you have fallen victim to one or more of
the cognitive biases described in this chapter. In the next chapter, on