Why would we expect the mind to work that way? The fitness costs to inaccurate beliefs.
An adaptationist analysis of beliefs yields the prediction that we ought to expect accuracy in the cognitive systems which generate them - stereotypes or otherwise - for the most part. There are, however, some limited situations in which some inaccuracy in beliefs advertised to others might be adaptive.
Department of Psychology,New Mexico State University,Las Cruces,NM 88003.jmarczyk@nmsu.eduhttp://Popsych.org.
Jesse
J
Marczyk
D015444:Exercise; D006801:Humans; D011996:Records; D012938:Social Perception; D019956:Stereotypic Movement Disorder