Prejudgments

Prejudgments are judgments formed about people, groups, or situations before adequate evidence is available. They are often based on incomplete information, stereotypes, or personal biases, and may be conscious or unconscious.

These judgments can arise from cognitive biases (such as the availability heuristic, representativeness, confirmation bias) and social factors like cultural beliefs, media exposure, and group identities.

Prejudgments can influence perception and behavior, leading to unfair treatment, discrimination, or errors in decision-making. They distort interpretation of actions and events, reinforce stereotypes, and can hamper critical thinking.

Mitigation involves seeking additional evidence, testing assumptions, considering alternative explanations, and slowing down cognitive processing when possible. Debiasing approaches include structured decision-making, accountability, diverse perspectives, and explicit effort to separate identity from individual attributes.

In legal contexts, prejudgment of cases or individuals is generally inappropriate because it can compromise impartiality.

See also: bias, stereotype, discrimination, snap judgment.