Quote:
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Implicit biases grow out of normal and necessary features of human cognition, such as our tendency to categorize, to form cliques and to absorb social messages and cues. To make sense of the world around us, we put things into groups and remember relations between objects and actions or adjectives: for instance, people automatically note that cars move fast, cookies taste sweet and mosquitoes bite. Without such deductions, we would have a lot more trouble navigating our environment and surviving in it.
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I reckon that entire paper can be trimmed down to this and still carry the same meaning.
As Manic_Skafe noted, these sorts of biases are not only normal, but essential. I cannot, for example, deal with every person, place and thing in the world on an individual basis without having my brain implode. I simply do not have the capacity.
I grew up in a multi-racial home, and as a consequence my prejudices aren't racial. That isn't to say I don't have prejudices, just that they exist in different forms. I tend to think of Americans as more violent than my own countrymen; while on the whole this may be true, it oversimplifies the issue. It may be accurate to say that some Americans are more violent, or even that Americans on average are more likely to commit a violent act, but applying this on an individual level is obviously flawed. I have to make a conscious effort not to do so.
It's also apparent in gender relations; how many jokes exist stating that 'men are this way and women are that way?' These jokes are stating a widely held bias, which may even be true in a general sense, but does not necessarily exist on an individual level. It's the same principle in effect.
It's much easier to deal with our fellow man categorically than on an individual basis.