One topic that I am going to take away from Psychology 1001 for many years to come is that humans are cognitive misers. What does this actually mean? In basic terms it means that we like to think as little as possible to get the job done often taking mental shortcuts. This can be a very good adaptation in many ways but at other times it can harm us greatly.
An example of when it is good to think like this would be when we are solving a math problem of 5*5. We don't rely on using our hands or pen and paper to solve it every time. We know the answer based on preexisting knowledge.
An example of when it is bad to take mental shortcuts would be when if someone sees a person from a particular race do a violent act. Then when that someone sees a person of that same race in the future they automatically assume that person did/does a similar act as the first person. Which in most cases 100% false!
In conclusion mental shortcuts are great time savers but only to a certain extent. We still need to take the time to critically analyze problems. This is a great life lesson to be learned.
Here is an example of problem to see if you are a cognitive miser. Click the link and search Cognitive Miser.
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