The ability to distinguish friend from foe helped early humans survive, and the ability to quickly and automatically categorize people is a fundamental quality of the human mind. Categories give order to life, and every day, we group other people into categories based on social and other characteristics. This is the foundation of stereotypes, prejudice and, ultimately, discrimination.
Diversity Resource Office.Hidden Bias: A Primer, an article published by Tolerance.org, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.(PDF). Retrieved from https://diversity.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/hidden_unconscious_bias._a_primer.pdf