ABSTRACT
In and of itself, categorization is an adaptive feature of the brain, because it frees up cognition to more important tasks (Fiske & Neuberg, 1990). Once we know that this object before us is a table, we know what its purpose is and how to think about it, based on our earlier acquired information about tables and their features (Mervis & Rosch, 1981; Rosch, 1978). However, when we start applying this natural tendency to categorize objects in our environment to people, the categorization process isn’t nearly as accurate, nor is it free of consequences. Miscategorizing a couch for a bed likely won’t be a big deal under most circumstances. But mistakenly categorizing a man as a woman might get you a punch in the face! Despite this and other risks, everyone tends to categorize other people on an innumerable array of dimensions.
