Psychologists have discovered that humans in general – and children in particular – exhibit three innate biases:
- Essentialist bias: all natural kinds have and immutable essence
- Teleological bias: what they see must be purposeful and goal-orientated
- Intentionality bias: actions and outcomes must be the work of an intentional agent
These biases are actually useful for children to make predictions in the world and are defaults that adults revert to at times.
